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[0:00] Oh Father, this word of yours is just astounding and astonishing.! We already this morning have talked about things that kind of paved the way for this talk this! morning and this study. And I just thank you that your word holds together. We don't have to worry about contradictions within it because there are none. It is perfect. And we thank you for your perfect and infallible word and the privilege of being able to study it in Jesus name. Amen.

[0:30] Matthew 12. Now what I need to do is stand where I can poke buttons on the computer. Remember this picture? And it's kind of where we finished last week, isn't it? If we turn to the tail end of Matthew 11, we had this, Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So that was the end of last week. And of course part of resting in God is that you yoke yourself to him and he does most of the work. In fact one could argue he does all of the work and simply teaches you as you go. And then we embark and I'm not going to do a long introduction that goes through all the stuff we went through last week because it led up to that little finale that we've just read. You had these errant cities that were certainly restless places, places filled with sin that God was promising would face judgment, worse than Sodom and worse than Tyre and Sidon in the last days. And you had the Jews themselves who were looking for ways to kill Jesus. You had Jesus' tribute to John the Baptist and a constant reminder that John the Baptist came to you and he could have been Elijah to you but you weren't ready.

[2:15] And then when Jesus came he said you're not ready for me either. And so we've got this restless society and as we approach chapter 12 which is a very key chapter, I mean I guess you could say all chapters are key chapters. It's very difficult to pick out one above another but chapter 12 in particular heralds a change that's irrevocable in the Jewish nation. It heralds, as we get further into the chapter, it heralds the occasion that led up to the unforgivable sin and it led up to eventually, although years ahead, the destruction of the temple in AD 70. So all of that takes place later in this chapter. But Jesus has been saying to this generation, you're restless. And chapter 12 starts with talking about the Sabbath which of course is rest. So that's not a coincidence that

[3:20] Matthew's gospel carries on, on actually the same topic but it's the flip side of the coin. He's been talking about restlessness and now he's going to talk about resting in God and what that looks like.

[3:36] And I think there's quite a bit of application for us which hopefully if I'm if I've not run way over time, I'll get to at the end. So Matthew 12. At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this they said to him, look your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

[4:03] And he said to them, have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, and how he entered the house of God and they ate the consecrated bread which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?

[4:27] But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, I desire compassion and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Departing from here he went into their synagogue and a man was there whose hand was withered and they questioned Jesus asking, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him? And he said to them, what man is there among you who has a sheep? And if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep? So then it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and it was restored to normal like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him as to how they might destroy him. Before I go into any of my notes, and I'm in grave danger this week, as always, of departing from my notes. But the tragedy of this, they have Messiah in their midst doing miracles and all they're interested in is setting him a trap. You know, they should have been thinking,

[5:55] I wonder if he'll heal the man. And if he does, it confirms he's a Messiah. And we've got Messiah in our midst and we've got everything to rejoice about. Instead, it was, let's, if he'll heal on the Sabbath and therefore break the law and then we can find a way to destroy him because he's an obvious blasphemer. But we can be just as obtuse. And we look on these things and go, you idiots.

[6:21] Yes. But I'm quite capable of being an idiot like that, I think. The notes will be on the screen just because I can't be fagged to work out the technology to turn them off. But try to concentrate on your Bibles and on what we're talking about. This development of, you see, I've put in bold type, no rest here then. The previous society in chapter 11, there was no rest. It was a society in turmoil.

[6:53] And Jesus, if you like, had made the turmoil worse because they provided, he provided them with an outlet that required a righteous response and they weren't ready to give it.

[7:05] And so being called to righteousness actually increased their turmoil. And then he then, Matthew then says, at that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. Now, let's just understand a bit about the Sabbath. First of all, the word Sabbath actually means an intermission. But the Greek word seems to carry, and I've only got various dictionaries' view on this. But the word Sabbath is not just an intermission, but it's a mandatory intermission.

[7:41] It carries that intensity of, this is a must-have. And of course, in that 400 years of silence between the last book of the Old Testament and the first book of the New Testament, so-called silence, God wasn't really silent, but he was perceived that way and he didn't produce any new scripture in that time. During that time, the religious Jews got a hold of the law and they tried to ring-fence the law.

[8:11] They brought out all sorts of rules and regulations to put this fence around the law so that if you didn't break the oral law, you stood no chance of getting further closer to breaking the written law.

[8:24] But the problem with it was that during that period of time, those oral laws in their minds became law. And so you were accused of breaking the law if you broke the oral law rather than if you broke God's law.

[8:42] It was effectively the padding that men had put around it. Now, with the Sabbath in particular, this is a very interesting thing because they took this rest, which was a mandatory rest, and they made it burdensome because they invented loads and loads of rules. The Mishnah and the Talmud were written during this period of time. And I can't find out, because scholars disagree on it, which was written first, whether it was the Mishnah followed by the Talmuds. That seems the most logical.

[9:17] But some say the Talmuds were written first and the Mishnah was sort of the handbook that tells you how to behave. But they wrote these laws and there were hundreds of them. And they used to read them.

[9:31] And it is a most tortuous read. If you ever look up a copy of the Mishnah and try to read it, it's a great cure for insomnia. You will fall asleep trying to make sense of it.

[9:43] But let's just look at the first time that the Sabbath appears is in Exodus chapter 16. If we go there. And it's 16 verse 23, which it can't. Yes, it can. I'm on the wrong book. Exodus 16.

[10:09] And verse 23. Although one needs to start with verse 22, really, to complete the thought. Now on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omas for each one.

[10:25] When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, this is what the Lord meant. Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.

[10:37] Bake what you will and boil what you will boil. And all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning. So they put it aside until morning as Moses had ordered. And it did not become foul, nor was there any worm in it.

[10:51] Now previously, what they'd done is when when God had established that they would go out every day and collect manna. And he said to them, don't collect more than you need for one day. And if they collected two days, what they kept over for the next day, because they didn't trust that it would be there the next day, was full of worms and it had gone moldy. And so they had to go out and collect anyway for that day.

[11:16] But the exception to this was the Sabbath. You could collect on a Friday and collect enough for two days. And you didn't have to go out on the Saturday because it didn't go moldy and it wasn't full of worms.

[11:32] And if you did go out on the Saturday, there wasn't any there anyway, because God didn't provide it. He had provided the rest from collecting manna. And so God's provision for the Sabbath wasn't manna, because he provided that the previous day.

[11:48] The provision for the Sabbath was you can rest. And this set the Jews apart from every other nation known at that time, because who in their right mind would take a day off from working when you could be earning money?

[12:06] Who in their right mind, don't forget the Sabbath principle didn't only relate to one day a week. It also related to one year in seven. Who would take a year off and not expect to become impoverished?

[12:25] But God had provided for them to have a day off every week and a year off in every seven. And a year and a half off in every 50 because of the Jubilee.

[12:37] And the other nations thought they were barking mad and yet they were prospered beyond the other nations. So if we read on down to verse 29, what we read is this.

[12:51] See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Before he gives you bread for two days on the sixth day, remain every man in his place.

[13:03] Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. And the important word there is gifted. God gifted man the Sabbath.

[13:14] You know, now this this tallies perfectly with the all you who are heavy laden. Come to me and I will give you rest.

[13:27] Sabbath rest. Right. I've got to pay the mortgage and I've got to get work and I've got to start early tomorrow. And I'm going to be finishing late the next day. And all of that stuff. And suddenly, take a day off and rest.

[13:42] That's my gift to you. Now, although. Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath as a feast. And therefore, we do not need to keep the Sabbath in the same ritualistic sense that they did in the Old Testament.

[14:00] What happened when the resurrection happened was it moved to Sunday. So that effectively the Sabbath became a Sunday just because Christians met together on the Sunday. However, there was a point beyond that, which is it's healthy to take a day's rest.

[14:17] And it's one of the applications we should. Everybody should take a day's rest. But it doesn't have to be a Saturday or a Sunday or any particular day because the feast is fulfilled.

[14:31] So we live in God's constant Sabbath. So that means that the Christians should, in their heart, have a spirit of rest. Right now, standing here, I should be in rest because I'm living in the good of a fulfilled feast.

[14:51] Now, whether I am or not is another question. But it's there for me. God gave it to me. These people, what they got was not that gift.

[15:04] The gift was there for them to have if they wanted it. But the way they treated it, the religious leaders had created this set of laws around the Sabbath that made it so burdensome.

[15:16] And it's still burdensome for Orthodox Jews today. If you go to a high rise block in some countries, they'll have a Sabbath lift. Because one of the things you're not allowed to do on the Sabbath is kindle a fire.

[15:30] And if you press an electric button, you're creating a spark. And that is the same as kindling a fire. So when you need to go to the top floor of your block of flats or whatever, on the Sabbath, you can't push the button.

[15:43] So they have a lift that stops at every single floor on the way up and on the way down with nobody pressing any buttons. Just so that they don't have to do this piece of illegal, in inverted commas, work on the Sabbath.

[15:56] And I have to say, and forgive me any Jews that listen to this online, that is ludicrous. That's not what God had in mind when he set the Sabbath in place.

[16:08] When he set the Sabbath in place, what he was saying was, I've done all my work and I'm resting. Not because I'm tired. A Sabbath rest is not a day of laziness.

[16:19] What he said was, I finished my work, it's done. So I'm going to rest and enjoy it. And I want you to do the same.

[16:30] Every seventh day, I want you to remember my provision for you. And I want you to celebrate the goodness of God to you by giving you something that no other nation has got, which is a rest.

[16:41] And this isn't a day of laziness. This is a rest unto God. You do no laborious work, but you celebrate God for that day.

[16:53] You eat the food that was gathered the day before, so you don't need to prepare a meal. And so they wrote this law that you cannot prepare a meal on the Sabbath. But what God's provision was, was not forbidding you from preparing a meal.

[17:08] What it was, was you don't need to, because I've already provided for you. And so what God's people were supposed to do was enjoy this time when everything was provided.

[17:23] Even the draft animals didn't have to work. You know, the donkeys and the oxen had a Sabbath as well. The whole lot, because God had given full provision. And of course, these Jews are in that position.

[17:37] They have got their Messiah with them. God has given them full provision. And all they want to do is destroy him. So, I told you I'd depart from my notes.

[17:50] If we, of course, this keeping of the Sabbath became the fourth commandment. The Ten Commandments, you'll find it in Exodus 20, verses 8 to 10. We probably don't need to read that this morning.

[18:01] But it became one of the Ten Commandments. Now that, I find I have an interesting dilemma as a Christian in the New Testament with that.

[18:12] Because the Ten Commandments still apply. I'm not allowed to murder people. I'm not allowed to commit adultery. I'm not allowed to steal things. I'm not allowed to tell lies. So, am I allowed to ignore the Sabbath?

[18:27] And I think I'm going to leave that question partially answered. By saying, I do believe God wants us to take rest. And the purpose of the Sabbath.

[18:40] The purpose. In fact, let's turn there. Exodus 20. Starting at verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

[18:52] Six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter.

[19:03] Your male or your female servant. Your cattle. Or your sojourner. In other words, your visitor who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth.

[19:13] And the sea and all that is in them. And rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day. And made it holy. So, I think there is still room for us to keep the Sabbath.

[19:26] In the sense that we need to have a day's rest a week. Where we consider God. And it makes sense to do it on a Sunday. Because that's when we can all do it together. But if you happen to have to work Sundays.

[19:38] Find another day and still have your Sabbath. And I wouldn't say. I wouldn't put that on anybody as a legal constraint. But at the same time.

[19:49] God designed you to thrive. On a certain amount of rest. Not lazy rest. But rest where you take time to consider the God that gave you rest.

[20:02] Exodus 31. Exodus 31. Verse 12.

[20:31] I've actually put verse 18 in the notes. And that's incorrect. It should be verse 12. The Lord spoke to Moses saying. But as for you. Speak to the sons of Israel. Saying you shall surely observe my Sabbath.

[20:42] For this is a sign. Between me and you. Throughout your generations. That you may know that I am the Lord. Who sanctifies you. So. It's a.

[20:55] The fact that they're keeping the Sabbath. Is a sign. To the world. To say. We are the children. Of a good God. Who gives us rest.

[21:07] Now when the. When the world looks at the Jews today. And watches the way they handle the Sabbath. Is that the impression they get? It isn't.

[21:17] Is it? Oh it's a Sabbath. I can't even push buttons on a lift today. You know. It's mad. But what it was supposed to do.

[21:28] Was create a witness to the world. Of. I'm being looked after by the living God. I can take a day off. I can take a year off in seven. This is a sign. To the whole world.

[21:39] That God is with us. And it doesn't involve. Stress and strain. It involves the opposite. Of stress and strain. It involves downing tools.

[21:51] And saying. Lord. It's all in your hands. We love you. Because you've given us rest. And that rest. Is not just physical rest. But it's spiritual rest too.

[22:01] Where we can know spiritually. Our God. Who is. Particularly for us. Our God. Has filled us with his spirit. And there is nothing.

[22:12] That should. Stress us out. Or give us strain. And I'm as guilty. As the rest of you. For finding myself. Stressed out. When I shouldn't be. Because actually. God has given me. The way out of stress.

[22:23] And strain. So. With all that in mind. These guys are in the grain field. And just before we move on.

[22:37] We want to. Go to Deuteronomy 23. Verse 25. Verse 25. Deuteronomy 23.

[23:01] Verse 25. Says this. When you enter. Your neighbour's. Standing grain. Then you may pluck the heads. With your hand. But you shall not wield a sickle.

[23:13] In your neighbour's. Standing grain. And there was a parallel law. About vineyards. If you went into your neighbour's. Vineyard. You were allowed to. Eat grapes. Until you were satisfied.

[23:24] Dead. But you weren't allowed to harvest. The grapes of another man. So there was a provision. And it was mainly for the poor. But it could be just for the hungry.

[23:35] Where you were allowed to go. And take. Grain. To feed yourself. But you weren't allowed to harvest. This crop. So what the disciples were doing.

[23:46] Was legal. Probably on every day. But the Sabbath. And on the Sabbath. It was still legal. Until you get into the oral law.

[23:56] Which made it illegal. So they weren't breaking God's law. They were breaking. The padding laws. That the religious leaders. Had put around it.

[24:07] Now. Keep in mind. That the idea of the Sabbath. Is. You rest. Well. The laws that they put in.

[24:21] Around the main law. Which was very simple. Don't. Do your normal. Gainful. Employment. On that day. It's as simple as that. Don't go to work. They said.

[24:33] Well. What is work? And what they came up with. Were things like. A woman was forbidden. To look in a mirror. Because she might see.

[24:44] A grey hair. And she might be tempted. To pluck it out. And that is reaping. On the Sabbath. Right. Crazy. Isn't it? A Sabbath day's journey.

[24:56] They worked out. That a Sabbath day's journey. Because you weren't supposed to do. A long journey on the Sabbath. Was 1,999 paces. Which is about two thirds of a mile.

[25:06] For most people. Well. They realised. The constraints of that. But they didn't want to. Step outside the law. So. Those. 1,999 steps.

[25:18] Were from home. So what they did. Was. They said. Well I live in Bethlehem. So Bethlehem. Is my home. So I can move about. Anywhere I like. In Bethlehem.

[25:29] And my counting. Of my 1,999 steps. Starts from the boundary. Of Bethlehem. Onwards. So they were trying. To rig the law. So that they could live. When the law.

[25:40] Was supposed. To make living. Fun. Fun. No. And this is what. Legalism does. Says. Oh I don't know.

[25:51] That we should be doing that. Now there are things. We shouldn't be doing. And we know those things. But. Legalistic constraints. Do not serve the purpose.

[26:01] Of the Sabbath. Which was. God. Had provided this. So his people. Could have fun. And I don't mean fun. In the silly sense. Of fairgrounds. And. Party. Balloons.

[26:12] And all of that. I mean fun. In the sense. Of they relate. To their God. Who absolutely. Thrills them. That was the purpose. If you spilled seed.

[26:23] On a kitchen floor. You weren't allowed. To sweep it up. Because. In sweeping it up. Some of the seeds. Might fall through. A crack in the floor. And might germinate. And that was sowing. On the Sabbath.

[26:34] Sabbath. And. And. If you moved. Furniture. Where you spilled. The seed. Then the legs. Of the chairs. And things. Might make.

[26:44] A groove. In the floor. For the seed. To fall into. And germinate. And therefore. That was plowing. Kind. I'm just going to read.

[26:55] This to you. This came from. Bible.org. And it was just a thing. On the Sabbath. All things were classic. All kinds of things. Were classified as work. For instance. To carry a burden.

[27:06] On the Sabbath days. To work. But next. A burden. Has to be defined. So the scriber law. Lays it down. That a burden. Is food. Equal in weight. To a dried fig.

[27:18] Enough wine. For mixing. In a goblet. Milk enough. For one swallow. Honey. Enough. To put upon. A wound. Oil. Enough. To anoint.

[27:29] A small member. Water. Enough. To moisten. An eye salve. Paper. Enough. To write. A custom house. Notice upon. Ink. Enough. To write. Two letters. Of the alphabet. Read.

[27:39] Enough. To make a pen. And so it went on. Endlessly. It went on. Now that's. You can look that up. For yourself. They spend. Endless hours.

[27:50] Arguing. Whether a man. Could or could not. Lift a lamp. From one place. To another. On the sabbath. Whether a tailor. Committed a sin. If he went out. With a needle. In his robe. Tailors used to sew. And if they didn't want.

[28:01] To lose their needle. And Sharon should take note of this. If they. If they didn't want. To lose their needle. They used to. Tuck it into their suit. And so if the tailor. Goes out. With a needle. In his coat.

[28:12] Is he sinning. Because he's actually. Prepared for work. Whether a woman. Might wear a brooch. Or false hair. Even if a man. Might go out.

[28:22] On the sabbath. With artificial teeth. Or an artificial limb. If a man. Might lift a child. On the sabbath day. When my grandchildren. Were younger. They didn't give me.

[28:33] Any option. They just threw themselves. Into my arms. Then I suppose. I could say. Well that wasn't. My work. This was the essence. Of their religion.

[28:43] Loads and loads. Of petty rules. And regulations. Nothing to do. With the rest. That God. Had promised. So don't work. On the sabbath.

[28:54] Became. Really burdensome. There are so many. Things I need. To watch. On the sabbath. I can't relax. For a moment. I need a drink.

[29:06] Oh. And I can't make a drink. It goes on. I won't bore you. With further examples. So. This was turned.

[29:17] From a blessing. Into this. Burden. By the religious Jews. Who were. Oppressing. Their people.

[29:28] With a burden. That God. Specifically. Was trying to avoid. You've been burdened. All week. Today. Sit. Rest. And celebrate God. And everything they did.

[29:41] Was the opposite. Of that. Now. These disciples. Then. In the cornfield. Were picking grain. They were. Harvesting.

[29:53] According to the. Oral law. Picking ahead of grain. Was harvesting. Rubbing it. In your hands. To get the. Chaff away. Was threshing.

[30:04] Then when you blow on it. To get rid of the chaff. You're. That's winnowing. And then. Because you've done it. With the intention. Of eating it. That was preparing a meal.

[30:15] So there were four aspects. Of Sabbath law. That you would. Bridged. Breached. When in fact. None of that.

[30:27] None of that. Was ever. Foreseen. Or predicted. By God. When he gave. The Sabbath. I mean. I say it wasn't predicted. It probably was. He probably knew. What people in future.

[30:38] Were going to do. But the idea behind it. Was not to make that. Now you. You can't take that. Head of corn. Oh now you're winnowing. It was. It far exceeded.

[30:51] What. God intended. So. What he then says. Is. Do you remember. When David.

[31:02] Ate the consecrated bread. In the temple. Turn to first. Samuel 21. I suspect. Joe will be covering this.

[31:13] At some point. Starting at verse 3.

[31:32] First Samuel 21. Verse 3. And this happens at a time.

[31:43] When David. Is. Running from Saul. And. He goes to this. Place called. Nob. Where.

[31:54] Ahimelech. The priest. Is. And. Ahimelech. Came trembling. To meet David. It says in verse 1. And said to him. Why are you alone.

[32:04] And no one with you. David said to. Ahimelech. The priest. The king has commissioned me. With a matter. And has said to me. Let no one know anything.

[32:14] About the matter. On which I am sending you. With which I have commissioned you. And I have directed the young men. To a certain place. Now therefore. What do you have. On hand. Give me five loaves of bread.

[32:25] Or whatever can be found. The priest answered David. And said. There is no ordinary bread. On hand. But. But there is consecrated bread. If only the young men.

[32:37] Have kept themselves from women. In other words. It was important to the priest. That the men were not defiled. In any way. David answered the priest. And said to him. Surely women have been kept from us.

[32:48] As previously. When I set out. And the vessels of the young men. Were holy. Though it was an ordinary journey. How much more than today. Will their vessels be holy. In other words.

[32:59] The guys haven't had a chance. To become. Tainted. By contact with. Women. Verse six.

[33:09] So the priest gave him. Consecrated bread. For there was no bread there. But the bread of the presence. Which was removed from the Lord. In order to put. Hot bread in its place.

[33:20] When it was taken away. Now one of the servants of Saul. Was there that day. I don't need to go on. What I'm. The point is. That this bread.

[33:30] Now the bread of the presence. Was given. It was. It was in the temple. And every day. It was taken away. And replaced. And when it was taken away.

[33:41] The bread that was taken away. Was food for the priests only. No one else was supposed to eat it. But they gave it. To David. To give to his.

[33:52] To himself. And his. And the people with him. Just like Jesus. In the grain field. They. You know. There was a. A small group. That needed feeding. And so they.

[34:03] Helped themselves. To that which they. In theory. Shouldn't have done on the Sabbath. The difference of course is. That. Jesus disciples. Weren't breaking the Sabbath.

[34:13] Whereas. In Samuel's day. The Sabbath. Was being broken. So there was a difference there. But. The. The main point. That I believe.

[34:25] Jesus was making here. Is that. A law. Can only stand. Until a higher law. Takes over. And that the law.

[34:35] Of the Sabbath. Was. Applicable. Only. Or. How can I put it. The. It was rescinded.

[34:47] Where. Need. Where physical need. Came into place. So. Real need. Trumped. Legalism. When it came to. Administering stuff.

[34:58] On the Sabbath. Now in the days of David. Of course. That was a very real thing. These guys. Were. Desperately hungry. And so they gave them. The consecrated bread. Because. What mattered more.

[35:09] Was the future king of Israel. And his men being fed. And not dying of starvation. So. The law was supposed to be sensitive. To actual need.

[35:22] Now. Of course. It's not really. A fair comparison. Because. What the disciples. Were doing. Was. Breaking. A mythical. Sabbath.

[35:33] But Jesus. Applied. This principle. Because. He wanted to say. To these men. And this is. This is my own. Interpretation. He wanted to say. To these men. Have you read. Your Bibles?

[35:45] In fact. Linda's been carrying. On that message. Ever since. Have you read. Your Bible? Yeah. Have you read. What David did? Uh.

[35:56] Yeah. And it's an insult. To say that. To a Pharisee. Of course. I've read it. I know it by heart. Yeah. But you didn't listen to it. When you read it. Did you? Um.

[36:07] So. Necessity. Trump's legalism. Was the point here. And then. He points out. Which again. To a Pharisee. Must have been like. A kick in the shins.

[36:18] That the priests. Themselves. Profane the Sabbath. Every Sabbath. Because they carry on. Working in the temple. To make the offerings. So.

[36:32] He's very clearly. Made the point. That the Sabbath. The Sabbath. Isn't there. To be a rigid set of rules. The Sabbath. Is there. For men. And. When you read.

[36:43] This. This scripture. That says. And it's in. Luke's gospel. And it's in chapter 7. But it's. Man is. The Sabbath is for man. Not man for the Sabbath.

[36:55] It means this. The Sabbath. Is for the sake of man. Not man. For the sake of the Sabbath. The Sabbath. The Sabbath. The Sabbath. The Sabbath.

[37:06] The Sabbath. I gave you the Sabbath. For the sake of man. So that he'd have time. To rest. And reflect. And enjoy me. Is.

[37:17] Is what's. Kind of concealed. In that statement. The Sabbath. Is for man. I gave. Man. The Sabbath. As a gift. So.

[37:34] He's used this. Stepping stone. To show. That the temple. Can break. The Sabbath law. Because.

[37:45] The temple. Is higher than the Sabbath. That's. Kind of. You know. If. If it weren't. Priests. In the. if you weren't priests in the temple they wouldn't be allowed to break the sabbath law but because it was the priests in the temple under certain conditions they could break the sabbath law because the temple was higher so what does jesus next say one higher than the temple is here people who say that jesus didn't claim to be god should take a note of scriptures like this because what is there higher than the temple in the eyes of a jew god himself one higher than the temple is here you know i can imagine him doing this one higher than the temple is here you know i don't know whether he did but in my imagination he did for the son of man is lord of the sabbath so what he's saying is i gave you the sabbath it's my day so i can dictate what happens on it and it's okay to eat grain on the sabbath then he goes into this confrontation in the synagogue um so let's go back to matthew 12 and look at that i've got a right frog in my throat today and now i'm all right oh i'll get through it joe joe can joe can decide whether he edit out the coughs or if i have a drink he'd have to edit out the slopes and the swallows so verses eight to ten so he said the son of man is lord of the sabbath lord of the sabbath i'm in charge of the sabbath i gave you the sabbath the sabbath is to fulfill the things i say not what the written the oral law says and then he goes on to say this departing from here he went into their synagogue and a man was there whose hand had been withered and they questioned jesus asking is it lawful to heal on the sabbath so that they might accuse him gosh this is tragic let's find a way to accuse this man who heals people and sets them free now every single time jesus healed somebody what he did was he gave them rest they no longer had to struggle with the burden of their infirmity every time he touched people he gave them what the sabbath was there for and and what what they did was ha we might be able to entrap him here rather than praise god he's healing people this is what sabbath is all about and the thing is they were teachers of the law they knew this so this was deliberate it wasn't ignorance it was ignorance as we've said on a previous study i think they were deliberately ignoring the laws of the sabbath the true laws of the sabbath and i have to wonder and the scripture doesn't tell us so this is just my mental meanderings was he a plant was he planted there if we get this man in the temple and jesus comes he never could resist healing people because he loves people so he's going to heal this guy and as he comes in and we present him with this man with a withered arm we can say to him is it lawful to heal on the sabbath and if he does it we've got him well i think it was a trap i mean it became a trap anyway didn't it because as soon as he was there

[41:47] they tried to corner him is it legal to heal on the sabbath they wanted to entrap him and uh those of us who are doing the thursday night have come across something called an affortiori argument and if you can't remember what that is i'll tell you again an affortiori argument is something that argues from the lesser to the greater so in the places we've been looking at it if it was true of those people in those days who didn't have the messiah how much more true is it for us that's an affortiori argument well jesus uses that form of argument when he talks about the trap sheep there isn't one of you that if you if your sheep falls into a pit on the sabbath you'll go and get it out this true of the sheep how much more true is it of a valuable human being you would help a valuable human being out of the pit on the sabbath because he's more valuable than the sheep so his proclamation he was lord of the sabbath he set himself above the law as the one who had the authority over the law and who was able to annul it or supersede it but what he also said was as a general principle compassion overrules legalism and he referred them to uh is it habakkuk 6 i'm asking you i'm supposed to know um i think it's habakkuk or habakkuk however you say it um sorry in which case it must be hosea i'm sure it was 6 verse 6 i don't know why i didn't put it in there so if this is all wrong i'll send it to you um yeah now in the nasb i believe this is mistranslated this hosea chapter 6 verse 6 where god says i delight in loyalty has anybody got a version that says kindness or compassion or a different word from loyalty was that a yes did anybody have a different translation yeah what did yours say mercy yes so right now the the word used should be translated mercy or compassion uh loving kindness is close enough but loyalty is actually wrong i believe i desire mercy rather than sacrifice and in the and in the knowledge of god rather than burnt offerings god desires this more than offerings now the sabbath was a day of offerings it was offerings in the temple and it was offerings in the home and what you were offering in the home was your attention to god uh as well as you'd probably break bread together and you'd have a seda meal and so on so what god says is compassion is more important than sacrifice so when a man turns up with a withered hand on the sabbath you apply the superior law of compassion if you can heal the man you heal him if you can help him you help him if you have to do a bit of work to help him you do a bit of work to help him and it's in mark's account that we read it wasn't luke i said it was luke earlier it's mark's account mark chapter two he says sabbath is for man not man for the sabbath so what they should have done with this

[45:48] he said oh you are going to heal him aren't you and instead is it lawful to heal on the sabbath and jesus said to them yes it's lawful to do good on the sabbath because god desires compassion more than he or mercy rather than just offerings and instead of doing all of that what they did was they sought how they might destroy him so i'm going to quickly go through this i'm not going to go through it at all in detail you you will get the notes um those are seven occasions when god healed on the sabbath uh so he was always rubbing the pharisee's nose in the sabbath and doing things on the sabbath that he's not supposed to do according to the oral law but never once did he break the written law and on each occasion he brought rest to the person he healed and he perfected them physically so they got both spiritual rest and physical rest so applications for us the first thing i would say is we must take rest from labors specifically to celebrate god's goodness it isn't just a day to be lazy it's an active rest we can also ponder the fact you see we're supposed to be living in god's rest now and many of us struggle with that particularly if the kids are having a scrap or the the dogs wet on the floor or whatever we get we get shaken from our rest very easily but this rest speaks to us of a time when we will be permanently in rest because there will be no sin there'll be no sickness there'll be no disability we will be living in the new jerusalem in the new heaven in the new earth and everything will be utterly amazing and all of these satanic things will be gone now that we're saved we should be able to find a place of rest though and if we're shaken from it we should be able to return to it and we should help one another to do that and when you get shaken from your rest ask for prayer if you can't get through it yourself god's rest is not driven or limited by life difficulties or problems when god when god talks about giving them the ability to enter into his rest it was a time when they were expecting persecution so it's not the rest of god is not dependent on your circumstances you can find rest even in spite of really difficult circumstances but we can be robbed of it by persistent sin or persistent rebellion against god and then we find we're not sleeping well at night because in our heart of hearts we know we're in rebellion and the pathway to entering that rest more fully is to seek first his righteousness seek first his righteousness and I've forgotten the phrase all these things will be added to you but it was seek first his something seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and these things will be added unto you so father thank you for this word we bless you for it and teach us lord to enter your rest and also teach us not to be legalistic whilst at the same time upholding certain standards that seem to be irrefutable lord we don't want to become so liberal minded that we lose focus on the kingdom of god and your righteousness but at the same time

[49:49] to apply the law in a harsh way like these phallisies were doing takes us further away from you so lord give us give us the right balance I pray and give us a heart of compassion when dealing with each other that if one of us falls into sin we will be trying to restore and restore to rest rather than to criticise and tear down lord keep us in the very very palm of your hand we would ask in Jesus name amen amen amen Thank you.