The Lord of Rest Luke 6 Vs 1 11

Good morning everyone and welcome to Faith Bible Church. A couple of new faces and welcome. Glad you're here and it's a another beautiful spring day and a good good time to enjoy God's creation around us.

For announcements, we don't have many here. Looking backwards, the ladies Bible study was Saturday, and I'm sure the ladies were blessed by Barb's teaching there. Prayer meeting tonight at 6. Leadership board meeting this Wednesday, gentlemen, at at 6 o 'clock and we're gonna have a few extra agenda items, talk about facility stuff, but the next biblical counseling course is April 22nd at 11 o 'clock.

That's Saturday. Again, all are welcome to come out to that even if you haven't been out to one yet. You can come out and just you can take all sorts of nuggets and pearls of wisdom from that course. It's really really good.

So I encourage you to do that if you're able. I just wanted to read a short passage here, Psalm 121 and as we as we're considering in our worship this morning, God is the center of our worship. It's not man-centered.

It's it's not serving each other. I mean we fellowship with one another, but when we're worshiping we worship God alone and it's an active responsibility for us as believers. I will lift up my eyes on to the hills from whence comes my help.

My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper.

The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The Sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul.

And.

God in these times, God is in the business of preserving our souls. We are his and we don't need to fear. We don't need to worry. We don't need to stress out. Over some of the things that many of us that are old enough would say that would never happen or I'd never live to see the day and here it is, you know, and it's happening and but God has always been in control of that.

We don't need to fear. So that we can rest in and he will preserve us to the end. Okay, I would like to say a few words of prayer for our dear Heavenly Father. We do thank you that you preserve us, Father.

You care for your flock just as a shepherd cares for the sheep. Lord, we thank you that we can come to you humbly and contrite, Father, realizing that it is from you that all of our strength comes, that our salvation comes through the Lord.

Father, we thank you that we can gather as believers today. We thank you for the unity that we have in Christ that is through the Spirit, Lord, that we can be unified and through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Thank you, Lord, that you gave us your Son who died and rose again, just as the words up front here say, risen. One word describes what we have to hold on to, that without that one word we would have nothing.

So God, we thank you that we can come together as believers to lift our voices, to sing the songs. May our hearts be glad and joyful, remembering the God that we serve. Lord, we also remember those that aren't here today, that are infirmed or not able to fellowship or to gather with us, Lord, in person.

God, bless them that their hearts and their souls would be encouraged by coming to you in prayer and maybe even listening to these services online. But God, bless them today.

And,.

Lord, may you be their ever-present strength as they go through some very difficult and trying physical and emotional and sometimes spiritual challenges, Father. So, God, we pray today that you would bless each one here.

We pray you'd bless pastor as he brings us your word. And, Lord, may you be pleased with your choir as we lift our voices to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

In him was life and the life was the light of men. That's John 1 4. And let's stand and sing to Jesus Christ our King.

Today's scripture reading is going to be on Hebrews chapter 4 verses 6 through 10. Hebrews chapter 4, 6 through 10. Since therefore it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news fail to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day.

Today saying through David so long afterward and the words already quoted. Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. This is the word of the Lord.

Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and shield. Our heart rejoices in him. We trust in his holy name. Let his mercy be upon us as we hope in him. And let's stand and sing to our Lord.

Please turn with me to.

Luke.

Chapter 6 verses 1 through 11. Luke chapter 6 verses 1 through 11. Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that he went through the grain fields and his disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them.

Rubbing them in their hands. And some of the Pharisees said to them, Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath? But Jesus answering them said, Have you not even read this what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat.

And he said to them, The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Now it happened on another Sabbath also that he entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered. So the scribes and Pharisees watched him closely whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him.

But he knew their thoughts and said to the man who had the withered hand, Arise and stand here. And he arose and stood. Then Jesus said to them, I will ask you one thing. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?

And when he had looked around at them all, he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he did so. And his hand was restored as whole as the other. But they were filled with rage and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that Jesus has full authority to interpret the law, that his standard is what we follow, not anyone else. Father, we pray that you would help us to be free from any man-made standards that enslave us.

But to find Christ who frees us from all burden, help us to find rest in him this morning. In Jesus name. Amen. One thing I would like to start is to define the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the rest that Israel was commanded to obey on the seventh day.

And what's really important is unlike the Sabbath that we might know of. In fact, we might we we might not have much experience with the Sabbath other than the concept that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday.

And that's when we crave it the most. But the Sabbath was not a legalistic order. It was not a legalistic command. The Sabbath's context comes first in Exodus. Now, it comes, of course, in Genesis two when God rested on the seventh day after creating all things.

But that ties into Exodus. So remember Israel's background. They were slaves. All they did was work. Slaves did not get any days off. Only work was ingrained in their DNA. However, God courageously commands them to rest one day a week.

And Exodus 820, Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11, tells us the reason for Israel to keep the Sabbath. Verse 11, for in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Now, Israel was commanded to rest on the seventh day just as their God rested on the seventh day. This was an important covenantal marker to show to whom Israel belonged.

Israel are a group of people who are delivered from a gracious God who gives them rest because he is also the God of rest. And this is completely different from the ancient Near Eastern religions of the of of those days.

Their view was that humans were created to be enslaved so that they would work the ground in which the gods accidentally created. Imagine that that's their view, their view as humans were created just so that they would be working as slaves, kind of like what Israel was doing in Egypt already.

And God, knowing that these people, Israelites, will be affected by the culture, the paganistic culture around. He establishes the Sabbath, not so that he would put an extra burden on Israel's schedule.

Oh, gee, I have to rest on the seventh day. But it's so that they would be distinct. But not only that, they would be restored. All these people, all they knew was to work. Now, their gracious God, after delivering them, commands them to rest, put it down, relax, enjoy, rest as I am resting.

That's the beauty of the Sabbath. Now, this idea of Sabbath, the concept of Sabbath actually represents even the law itself. The Sabbath obedience was so crucial that any Israelite who who broke the Sabbath was executed.

On the other hand, people obeying the Sabbath. Showed this complete wholeness of one's faithfulness toward God. So in the Old Testament, over and over again, you will see those who obey the Sabbath are those who are loyal to God.

So in Isaiah 56, for in this eschatological time, in the last days, right, people like the eunuchs, those who were viewed as inferior, right, eunuchs are not whole. Right there. They have their body parts cut off.

But this is what it says about the eunuchs to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant. For Isaiah, a eunuch, an incomplete person. But if he is faithful to holding what God has commanded about the Sabbath, oh, he's faithful to the covenant.

Right. The Sabbath really epitomized, summarized the faithful obedience. Now, one thing to note is that the Sabbath did not completely forbid every work, right? Sacrifices were done on the Sabbath. Circumcision was done on the Sabbath.

Worshiping God was done on the Sabbath. Midwives are midwives worked on the Sabbath. Right. So there were special jobs in which had to continue through the Sabbath. Now, today's text is quite different, unlike the previous Sabbath miracles, which we saw earlier in Luke, this encounter is more adversative.

The Pharisees are not just silent spectators. They are challengers. The religious authorities, they directly challenge Jesus. Not only that, this is the beginning of their plot to destroy Jesus. So the main point of today's text is despite the challenges from the men's from men's traditions, Jesus is the final authority on the Sabbath for restoration.

Despite the challenges from men's traditions, Jesus is the final authority on the Sabbath for restoration. Now, first, the son of man is the final authority over the Sabbath. The son of man is the final authority over the Sabbath.

The context of this story is said in verse one, as Jesus and his disciples are passing through the grain fields, his disciples begin to pluck some grains from the grain heads, right? They're ready for harvest and they start rubbing them in their hands for consumption.

Now, the act of doing so is not illegal. It's OK for those who are hungry. However, what the Pharisees will challenge is that it's unlawful to do so on the Sabbath. So in verse two, they say, why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?

The concept of lawful is important here. According to the Jewish tradition. Not scripture, Jewish tradition, reaping, threshing, winnowing and preparing food were all unlawful activities on the Sabbath.

Now, to the Pharisees. Rubbing the grains in their hands to eat was reaping, threshing, winnowing and preparing food. Four strikes and you're at more than out. And what Jesus disciples did was a direct challenge to the pharisaical custom.

Right.

So the custom was this looked really looks really like reaping, threshing and winnowing and preparing food. Now, instead of directly answering yes or no to the Pharisees to the question, is this lawful?

Jesus brings up scripture in verses three to four. Have you not read even have you not even read this what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he went into the house of God, took and ate the show bread and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat.

Now, this is a reference to first Samuel 21, one through seven. That when young man David, this is before his king. Is directly persecuted by Saul, the current king of Israel. He hurriedly escapes to knob.

It's a priestly town. Now, because of this rushing, David did not get to pack his sack.

He does.

It doesn't have any food. He doesn't have any weapons. So he asked Ahimelech, the priest, for any food and weapons to which Ahimelech replies, no, there's no food, but the bread of presence. It's the show bread which was offered to the Lord.

And we learned this in Exodus that only the priest could eat the show bread. And this show bread was offered to the Lord once a week. And this there were 12 loaves and they represented the tribes of Israel, and they were put on a fancy golden table, gold overlaid table to show that this is where a great king lives.

The Lord, the Lord, he always has plentiful of bread.

That's the Lord.

Now, scripture, however, in this case, allowed David and his friends who are in desperate situations to consume this bread only, which was only allowed for the priests for them to eat without sinning.

In fact, there's no judgment on David for eating this. Now, although David's situation is not directly related to the Sabbath's law, there are some connections between Jesus' disciples eating on the Sabbath and David eating the show bread.

First, they both relate to eating. The disciples ate the grains and David ate the bread. Second, both groups show apparent, I say apparent, that's the key word, violations of the law. Now, one difference is that the Pharisees were charging Jesus and his disciples according to their manmade tradition.

There's nothing in scripture about picking up grains to rub them to eat. Right, they don't consider the scripture doesn't say that's work specifically. However, David's example is directly forbidden in scripture.

So David's example holds a greater intensity and power. It has a greater weight because David actually did something that scripture says not to. While the Pharisees were accusing the disciples of doing something according to their own tradition.

And what Jesus is saying by describing what David did is this question that the Pharisees have to answer. Jesus places a very difficult question in front of the Pharisees. If you are going to charge my hungry disciples for preparing grains on the Sabbath against your own tradition, will you also call King David guilty when scripture doesn't?

In another sense, are you the true authority over the law? Through David's example, Jesus puts the Pharisees in their place. They do not have the authority to distort the purpose of the law. Rather, through David's situation, Jesus reveals the true purpose of the law.

The law does not exist to be burdensome. The purpose of the law, again, was not to trap people as the Pharisees are doing. Rather, God prioritizes the need of his people through the law. God places the life of the people before the letter of the law.

Now, by what authority does Jesus claim this? Right. This this is a huge claim. The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Here, Jesus calls himself the Son of Man from Daniel 7. The Son of Man is this divine figure who gets his own throne, even though the Lord has his own throne.

And he's on the clouds, just like how the Lord is also lifted on the clouds. And this, it's mysterious. And it really, really points to there might be a divine figure coming. And this divine figure, the Lord will give all authority over the world.

That's something. And what Jesus is saying, I am that guy. And I also have authority over the Sabbath. That's a wild claim. And what Jesus is showing is that the Pharisees do not have the authority to repurpose the law.

That is Jesus' jurisdiction alone. He gets to interpret the law. Anything that veers from Jesus' standard is unlawful. That is a huge claim. Now, this might this this might rub us the wrong way here. Is Jesus saying that we can just break the law if it's convenient to us?

That's not what he's saying at all. What the Bible shows us is the hierarchical ethics. Hierarchical ethics means when you have to make a moral decision, and there are two choices. If you obey one, you break the other.

The hierarchical ethics shows that there is a hierarchy on what's greater and what's lesser. And with the hierarchical ethics, you have to choose the greater obedience, the one that is weightier. So here's an example from the New Testament.

In the New Testament, the apostles faced a similar situation of two moral decisions. Obeying one would break the other. The high priest and his associates jailed the apostles for preaching Jesus who died for their sin and rose again.

They were preaching the gospel and the high priest and the associates did not like that because they themselves were culpable for Jesus' death. However, God graciously sends an angel to free them from the jail.

First, the fact that God rescued them showed that disobeying the religious authorities after was actually obeying God because God approved of what the apostles were doing or he wouldn't have sent the angel.

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Not only that, after the apostles are free, they continue to preach the gospel after their freedom and the religious rulers, they ask, why are you doing this? Why are you disobeying our orders? To which Peter replies, we must obey God rather than human beings.

Now, is it is there in the Bible that we must obey the religious rulers or any rulers for that matter? Yes. Multiple places, Romans, first Peter, even in Acts when Paul Paul says something rude to the high priest, he apologizes.

There is a command to honor and respect and obey the ruling authorities. Yet, if it means, if obeying them means disobeying God, you better obey God. That's the, that's how the hierarchical ethics plays out.

When you're given a choice where we're given, when you're given two choices and we're obeying one breaks the other, in biblically, you must obey the greater.

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The greater commandment. Now, a more modern example would be this. During World War II, was it a sin for a Christian family to hide the Jewish refugees from the Nazis? After all, the Bible tells us multiple times to honor the governing authorities.

The answer, of course, is no. The Bible shows us this hierarchical ethics. It means there's a hierarchy of moral choices. If there comes a time in which you have to choose between the two options, we must choose to keep the weightier law.

And what Jesus is saying is that under the law, the human life comes before the nitty-gritty. The need for the human life, the well-being of the human life comes before your traditions. The law-giver compassionately cares for his people first.

The law-giver gave the law for the good of the people. He didn't give the people for the good of the law. That's what Jesus is saying here. The Pharisees have the priorities mixed up. They're trying to obey the law.

While.

Dishonoring and dehumanizing the people. And Jesus is saying that's not the purpose of the law. The law is truly honored when people made in God's image are respected and treated as so. And for Christians, when we are met with two choices, obeying man or obeying Christ, we must also choose the latter.

If your job tells you, commands you, that you cannot speak about Christ, and Jesus gives you an opportunity to share the gospel with your co-worker, are you going to obey your job employers? Or are you going to obey Jesus?

If a school tells a child or the parents you must not speak against the transgender ideologies, you can't say that they're two genders. Are you going to obey the school system, the board members, the principal?

Or are you going to obey God? And children, even adult children, the Bible says to honor your parents, obey them. But if your parents demand you to dishonor Christ, are you going to obey Christ or obey your parents?

These are the choices that we may face in our modern time. If a child who just converted to Christianity wants to go to church despite the wishes of the non-Christian parents, it is not sinful for that child to keep continuing to be a part of the local body of Christ.

And in fact, the church needs to provide protection and provide support in any way possible for that child to continue to worship the one true God.

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What does Jesus' authority over the Sabbath look like? God confirms Jesus' restorative authority on the Sabbath. God confirms Jesus' restorative authority on the Sabbath. Now, after the previous Sabbath situation, Luke takes us to another Sabbath.

Now, it happened on another Sabbath also that he entered the synagogue and taught and a man was there whose right hand was withered. The fact that this man's right hand is withered is an important distinction.

According to the Jewish traditions, life-saving medical actions were allowed on the Sabbath. And the argument goes like this. If someone at night comes into your house to burglarize and your life is in danger, but it happens to be on the Sabbath, are you not going to protect yourself?

Right?

So in that case, if you're able to protect your life on the Sabbath, then you must protect any life on the Sabbath from death.

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Also following that, even emergency workers in Israel like doctors and firefighters, they are able to work on the Sabbath if the need arises without breaking the Sabbath. However, a withered hand was not a life-threatening condition.

This healing is different because this did not threaten that person's life. Unlike Peter's mother-in-law who was, who had a high fever, she could have died. So, technically, technically, according to the tradition, healing this man would break the Sabbath law.

Hence, verse 7 tells us what the Pharisees and scribes are doing. Right now, there's a greater number of challengers. So, the scribes and Pharisees watched him closely whether he would heal on the Sabbath and that they might find an accusation against him.

They're watching closely to trap Jesus. They're ready to pounce as the hounds of the Sabbath. They will protect the Sabbath law. How does Jesus respond? But he knew their thoughts and said to the man who had the withered hand, I'll rise and stand here.

And he arose and stood. Although Jesus knew their wicked intention to trap him, if he dared to heal the man, instead of ignoring the man to avoid any conflicts, Jesus brings the man to the focus. He puts, he places the spotlight on the man.

To Jesus, restoration of a broken man, trumps any accusation. Jesus' heart is toward the diseased man rather than for his own good. He prioritizes others before himself. Then turning to the religious leaders, Jesus asks, I will ask you one thing.

Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy? Jesus brings up the term lawful again. Through this question, he distinguishes two paths of obeying the law. Is the law for good or evil?

Is it to save life or to destroy? Now the Pharisees and scribes are faced with the reality of their interpretation of the law. Healing this man would undeniably be doing good. Who can actually argue a healing of broken man be an evil thing?

It's to restore a life. This man probably couldn't work. His right hand is disfigured. For however long, his main source of income, mind you, there weren't just off desk jobs back then. People actually had to work with their hands.

And if your right hand, most likely the dominant hand for this man, is not functioning, your livelihood's at stake. And what Jesus is doing is there's a need for restoration. Sure, he's not dying, but this man needs to be restored.

Therefore, if the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath for healing, their interpretation of the Sabbath law is to do evil, to destroy life. This is a rather clever, wise question. If mine is this, then what are you?

If my interpretation is this, then what's wrong with yours? While Jesus' view of the end goal of the law is restoration, the Pharisees' view of the law is destruction. While Jesus seeks deliverance through the law, the Pharisees seek condemnation through the law.

They have no concern for the diseased man. Their main concern is condemnation of the one who is able to heal the diseased man. And in fact, their perverse view of the law foreshadows what they will perversely do to the lawgiver himself later in the gospel.

Just as they sought to destroy through the law, they will destroy Jesus, the lawgiver, on the cross. And without fearing the Pharisees, Jesus heals the man. And when he had looked around at them all, they're speechless at this point.

So he's looking. Is anyone going to challenge? He said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he did so and his hand was restored as whole as the other. The miracle is a sign to show whose side is God on.

After all, God would not respond to a request of sin. Because if God were to heal this man on the Sabbath, and if that happened to be sin, then God would sin. But we all know from the Old and the New Testament, God can't sin.

That would make him not God. So this means God miraculously shows us which view of the law that he himself holds, which interpretation of the law is actually correct. Jesus' restorative purpose of the law is the correct one.

Ironically, there was no work involved in this healing either. Jesus did not have to lift anything. Jesus did not have to work his hands. He merely had to speak. And the hand was restored. He did not touch anything.

He did not lift anything. He just spoke to the man. Stretch it out. God healed through Jesus and no law was broken. And after witnessing such a clear sign, rather than repenting, the Pharisees hunkered down even more.

But they were filled with rage and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. This shows the irrationality of sin. Sin, even at the clear sign of being wrong, the sinful mind will hunker down and say, well, that can't be right.

Even if there's clear evidence that your view, what you've done is false. Even God showed it to you, for the Pharisees, really. But they look at that and they are filled with anger. We got to do something about this guy.

After failing to trap Jesus, they start plotting. Jesus is no longer just a quirky carpenter teacher, but a Sabbath violator who must be eliminated. The irony is all too clear. Although they do not, although they do not know what to do with Jesus at this point, they have chosen to plot destruction on the Sabbath.

Jesus' question proved all too true. Because Jesus is doing good on the Sabbath. Jesus is saving life on the Sabbath. Well, then the Pharisees' different interpretation must be evil and for destruction.

And indeed, ironically, they do want to plot destruction. They want to kill a God-approved man. For Christians, when we deal with the Sabbath, we do have to, as Jesus shows us, we do have to look at the ultimate purpose of the Sabbath, and that is restoration.

And ironically, the ultimate restoration, not just one day a week, but the ultimate rest, the rest that Hezekiah read about in Hebrews 4, comes not from setting aside one day a week, but trusting in the Lord of Sabbath, the one who earns the rest for us, the one who gives the rest for us, not just for a day, but for all eternity.

And the irony is that the ultimate restoration comes from the destruction of Lord of Sabbath. In order for us to enter into this eternal rest, which every Sabbath points to, the lawgiver, Lord of Sabbath, had to be destroyed Himself.

He indeed had to die. He had to die on the cross by those who were offended by His authority over the Sabbath. He had to bear our sin, face the wrath that we deserved, so that we could enter into the rest of God, that God spoke about.

That's actually the beautiful logic of Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4 tells us that Israel in the Old Testament did not enter this rest. Remember, the slaves of Egypt were freed, and their main goal was the Promised Land.

Ah, there we can actually get rest. There we won't be enslaved anymore. But what does the author of Hebrews tell us? He quotes David's Psalm, Psalm 95, and says there's another rest coming. What he's saying is chronologically, David came after way after Joshua, who finally delivered Israel to the Promised Land.

But for some reason, David, hundreds of years later in Psalm 95, is talking about rest. Well, then ultimately, the rest did not come from Israel entering the land. It's waiting to be fulfilled. And Hebrews 4 tells us it is fulfilled in Christ.

When people enter the rest in Christ, they rest not from just physical work, but they rest from the works they have to do to earn eternal life. They no longer strive to do good anymore in order to be saved, because they've already entered the rest at the blood of their Savior.

That's the ultimate rest. Jesus redefines what the Sabbath is. He points to the ultimate rest. Here, He merely shows us the purpose of Sabbath and its restoration. And He takes it really far on the cross when He says, the cross actually is pointing to, it's the entryway to the ultimate rest from any work for salvation.

God's people will finally be at rest because Christ, Lord of Sabbath, has accomplished it for them. They need to not fret anymore. They need to not worry anymore of earning salvation. All they need to do is rest in Him.

Enter into the rest that Joshua did not fully provide. But in Christ, this full restoration of a rest is offered to any of you who believe in Jesus. Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that we have our final rest not in specifically setting aside a day to not work, but in a person in Jesus who accomplished what we couldn't accomplish, lived a perfect life and died the death we deserved so that we might enter into the rest with Him.

And Father, we pray that we longingly wait for this rest. And that we would enjoy this rest that's currently available for us. That it's not up to us. It's not up to our good deeds. But it's up to Jesus' perfect accomplishment on the cross that we have rest in God.

In Jesus' name, amen.

And let's stand and sing our closing song. Thou will keep him in perfect peace. And it's been a blessing to be together. We are now dismissed.