Yeah, I remember just coming over and saying hi and seeing Pastor Robert again and getting to meet you, Pastor. And then Pastor Ishmael and his family walked in September of 2013, I think, at Sovereign Way. And like he said, we thought we were going to keep them forever, always. And, you know, we know the Lord. moves people and it's the Lord's Church and so we're always prepared for that. But I know I was making plans in my own, in man's way, I was making plans as far as his question as to whether or not he was going to be teaching or not. I had big plans for him teaching. But yeah, that's what man man makes plans, and it's for the Lord to ordain the steps, right? And so, praise God. And I will tell you something, having spent a little time with Pastor Hector, especially at the conference, and Pastor Ishmael, who I've spent much more time with, you guys are very blessed here at this church. Pastor Ishmael's life, obviously, is God, wife, children, church. And I want you to know how high He thinks of you, how highly He regards you, and His heart is for this church. You are very blessed to have Him. I got to hear many of the blessings and just hearing Him, the passion and the love with which He asks for this church. You really can't ask for anything more than that from a pastor. You're blessed here by both of your pastors. You're always in our prayers at Sovereign Way. We specifically pray for you by name many Sundays. It's awesome to have Many times you can think, okay, are we the only ones who believe this way? And especially when the Word is taught at such a deep level that I know the teaching is here, you start to think, well, are we the remnant? Are we the only ones? And so it's such a blessing. As we saw in 1 Kings 18, we see many places that one of the things the Lord does in the way He encourages us is to show us, no, there's more. There's more. 1 Peter, same thing. He's encouraging those that are exiled and being persecuted and saying, no, there's others who think this way, who are going through the same thing. And so I want you to know you definitely have a sister church up here in Sovereign Way. And we're excited. There's a lot of things that we're talking and praying about, doing more together in the future. So with all that, I have one last thing that before we start, I want to just apologize. I keep clearing my throat. I can't clear my throat this morning and it was an unfortunate event this morning. My daughter made us eggs this morning and I went to sneeze at the wrong time. And I took something back right before the sneeze and it's just been there since. So I just can't clear it out. So I apologize for that. You'll be hearing me hemming a lot. But if you will, please turn to Matthew chapter 12 and stand with me. Once you're there, we're going to be reading verses 1 through 8 of Matthew chapter 12. Matthew writes, starting in verse 1 chapter 12, At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. 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 bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Let's pray. Father, thank you for allowing us to be here this morning and get to meet the church, the flock here, and put faces with those that we've been praying for and those who Pastor Ishmael and Rosie have been sharing with us about, Lord. I ask that you just continue to bless and protect this flock. Allow us to do your work, to do kingdom work here in the high desert. It is such a dry desert in so many ways, Lord, that we may bring living waters, your living waters, to this desert, that you may use this church and all your true churches to extend your kingdom, Lord. But we thank you for this time. I thank you for allowing me to be here and share your word with the flock here. I pray for Sovereign Way as they're hearing your word being taught right now, also as Pastor Ishmael has already prayed. And Lord, I ask that you just guard and protect this time, Lord. Allow us to learn more of you, that we may love you more. Lord, please guard us from my adding or removing anything from your Word. May it all be to your glory, Father. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Please have a seat, Church. Church, I want to start this morning by telling you a modern-day parable. One that I think will start to sound very familiar to many of you, and perhaps some of you have heard something like this before. But it's about a young man who starts to go to work to get himself through college. He has a girlfriend and school to pay for, neither of which are cheap. And after searching for a job, he realizes that he needs a car to get him to work. So he buys a car and he starts making a little more money, a few months go by, and he starts having a hard time with the clunker that he's been driving. It's getting to be unreliable and he starts to tell himself that he would really, he just wants something a little more reliable, something he can count on to get him to school and work. So he buys a new car. And he's excited for the new cupholders and all the new things with this car. He has all the latest. And it's definitely reliable. It impresses his girlfriend and his friends. But then comes the payment. And the payment's high. So now, he actually has to work a little more, maybe even get a second job to pay for this car. He cannot afford days off, really. And he's starting to lose time or not have these days to spend with his girlfriend and friends. And he soon realizes that the car is now, in a way, running his life. The car now owns him. The irony here is that he originally bought the car to serve him. He bought the car so that he can go to work and make money. And now he's working. Thank you, Master. And now he's working so he can pay for the car so he can go to work, so he can pay for his car, so he can go to work, so he can pay for his car, so he can go to work. There's a man that in the 1800s thought about something like this. Now, granted, they weren't driving cars yet, but a philosopher, author, and poet named Henry David Thoreau. Many of you learn about him in school or maybe even still read some of his works. But he figured out that it was a rat race. that most of us get ourselves into. Same principles. And he basically just said, forget it. And he went off into the woods with just his thoughts and his writings and got out of the rat race. So this guy in this parable that I've been telling you is no one in particular. And it's all of us. He's all of us at the same time. And I know many of you have been in a similar situation. Now, it's easy to miss the point. for us to lose sight of what the original purpose and goal of something and what the original heart, what the original intention. And I want to talk to you this morning about a group of people who did just that, who lost the point, who lost sight of what they were doing, except it was on a much grander scale and how Jesus was able to use this to show His greatness. Now, I was very blessed to teach the first 12 chapters of Matthew at Sovereign Way, and I'm looking forward to continuing that series. I've been in Ephesians lately. And I'm really excited to preach this message, because I think this is one of my favorite passages in all of Matthew. And it's one that I've read for years. I just kind of not so much read past. I mean, I read. I saw what was there. But in studying it further and studying it to preach it, as your pastors know, you study things in a different way, and you go much deeper. This passage here, I believe, is pivotal in the ministry of Christ and what we're being shown here. And it's pivotal in the book of Matthew. We see many things start to transition and start to change here. For this is when the opposition to Jesus Christ starts to really take form. And you actually see Christ and the opposition both start to form up and make their arguments. You start to see Christ come out a little more. We see Matthew 4, 17. He starts his public ministry for the first time. He's going around, but he's still kind of keeping it quiet. He's still keeping it. He tells them many times, now is not the time. I can't go public with this yet. And then we also see the opposition, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, they start to mount up against him also. And so this is really a crucial time when we see everything starts to go towards, really, the Passion Week, the final week that we're much more familiar with. And so I'm going to be talking about context this morning, because as you know from your pastors, context is so huge. And normally in any sermon, I'll bring up first the remote context, a little further off as we see where we're getting into in our passage. For example, we're in Matthew chapter 12. So I'll just kind of let you know the remote context of what's happening here in Matthew. You can take the whole book of Matthew and break it up into five discourses. And you have a discourse is a major teaching portion, a major talking point of Christ. And so we have the five big ones, the first of which is the Sermon on the Mount. And this passage that we're in today is a narrative. So you have these discourses, teaching portions, narrative, kind of telling us some of what's going on, another teaching portion, and that's how the whole book goes. So our story today, we find ourselves between the second and the third of these major teaching portions. And as I said, now for the immediate context, is the opposition is starting to mount. The lines are being drawn. The Pharisees are getting bolder in their accusations against Christ. And Christ is starting to let out more and more of who He really is. So in chapter 12, as a whole, we have five illustrations. this opposition that's shown to us. Christ shows five illustrations of this opposition. The first two deal with the Sabbath, and we're going to be looking at the first one in this morning's sermon. The first one only. And so in Matthew chapter 12 verses 1 through 8, Jesus gives you three witnesses, three testimonies, that prove that He is Lord. so that you may know that He is Lord over your life as well. And that's the proposition of today's sermon. That's the main point. That's what I really hope we all get out of this is, again, Jesus gives us three witnesses, three testimonies that He is Lord, that prove that He is Lord, so that we, as believers, may know that He is Lord over our lives as well. The first witness is found in 1 Samuel. And you don't have to turn there because we're going to be seeing what he's referring to here in Matthew. But the first witness is that Jesus Christ is greater than David. And we see that in the first four verses of our passage. So let me give you the Old Testament context of what's going on here. First, and as I've told you, it's important to understand context. There was a couple years ago, there was a billboard sign up off the 15 freeway. And it was, I think it was either medical insurance or a hospital that was, maybe is still going up. But the ad said, don't trust anyone under 30. And most people don't actually get the full context of what that is. Some of you do, but I went through and I was quizzing a lot of people. Hey, do you know what that ad means? What's it trying to tell you? What's the context and the story behind it? And most people thought that it was just good wisdom about letting people get old enough that we can trust them, and something like that. And you see, at the height of the free speech movement at UC Berkeley in the 1960s, and I know many of you know this already, there was a student named Jack Weinberg, and he uttered the words, don't trust anyone over 30. He was famous, and that became a famous mantra for activism, and it was often quoted. And most children of the 60s picked this up as their protest slogan. So now, what this ad is doing is this ad is speaking to that same exact generation, because they're going to know, they're going to get it, and it's a funny, kind of interesting play on words. And it'll speak to them in a way that other generations won't necessarily pick up on. So now these people, they're a little older, they're wiser, they probably think a little different. And you see, what most people speculated that this ad meant wasn't, in fact, the full point. So the point of what I'm making here is that we can all maybe understand the basic message. But what we were missing, without the surrounding context, without the story of what this was and how it started in Berkeley and how it was a protest thing, we were missing the full story. my point this morning and why we have to understand the full context and what was going on. And so to understand the Bible we need to get all this surrounding info and try to understand the books as the original audience would have understood. As the Jews, as this is Matthew, this is a Jew writing to the Jews of his day. Otherwise we would miss much of what was there. And so I'm going to be giving you just a little context here to fill in the gaps so we can understand some of these things that I think will allow us then to understand what we're seeing here in the first eight verses of chapter 12. And there's three things that I want to bring up as far as context and bring you up to speed on. So we'll start here in chapter 12 verse 1. You see right away it starts at that time. Now this is not so much speaking specifically of time or chronology, but it's more of a thematic bridge. It's bridging the gap between what we just saw there at the end of chapter 12 and what we're about to see I'm sorry at the end of chapter 11 what we're about to see here in chapter 12 and if you look back at chapter 11 verse 25 you see the same thing at that time this was a tool that Matthew used again as a thematic bridge to link these events together so it's linking chapter 12 verse 1 is linking back with the passage come to me and I will give you rest see that verse 28 of chapter 11 come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." So we're still talking about rest. That's Matthew's topic here. And in chapter 12 we read, at that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. Well, we have good reason to believe that this was either just before or just after the Passover. And this is when the grain fields would have been producing in Israel. Now, we're not told where He's going. We're not told what the day it is. But we know it's the last day of the week. We know it's the Saturday, the Sabbath. And I'll explain why we know it besides just being told what we see there that it's the Sabbath in verse 1. Now, we continue in the passage. It says, His disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. So this is the first of the three cultural points that I want to explain. It's about plucking grain. So if we're to read this correctly, is it saying that they were just walking through someone else's field and eating from it? And the answer is yes, they were. In Deuteronomy, Chapter 23 verses 24 and 25, we see that the law allowed for this, and you see that there. If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain. So it was allowed as a benevolence. for people. It was allowed in the same way that you're opening up your pantry doors and helping to take care of the community in the way that you are. This was an allowance for the good of visitors, just aliens in their land as well as people who could not afford to eat. The Israelites actually had many laws that took care of the poor and the destitute. And the idea was to take care of the less fortunate, and as I said, also just for aliens and for those just passing through. And you see clearly there that you were allowed to eat your fill, but you were not allowed to fill your bags. And as for grain, you could also take and eat, but you could not put the sickle to it. You couldn't just go and take down a whole crop and store it in your own warehouses. Again, it was intended to not take advantage of the situation and take advantage of the landowner. And in verse 2 we continue of Matthew 12. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. Now, what the disciples were doing was completely within the rules and bounds of the Jewish people. No one, including the Pharisees, had a problem with them picking and eating the heads of grain. So let's talk briefly here, the second point of context. The first was what it means to take this grain. The second point of context I want to go over is, who are these Pharisees? And many of you are familiar with them. You've been studying the word for some time. And the Pharisees were the authorized teachers of the land. They were the rabbis. Most of their influence came through the Sanhedrin, which was the supreme religious, political, and legal council in Jerusalem at this time, and through the synagogues, where they would meet and teach. Now, there's much written about the Pharisees in the Gospels, and they're usually depicted as opponents of Jesus, critical of his behavior, hostile in their questions, very malicious. Jesus said to them in Matthew chapter 23, you see you have the woes to the Pharisees, and he said to them about them, they do all their deeds to be seen by others, and they love the place of honor at feasts, and the best seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the marketplaces, and being called rabbi by others. We also see He uses them as the example of who not to be like. Do not be like the hypocrites when you fast, when you give, when you pray. We see that clearly in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter six. But you're gonna see this relationship continue to heat up, if you were to continue in Matthew, as you carry on through this book. They had a very strict adherence to tradition. Something that's been handed down, they would say, from the fathers. That's the word they would use. It was from the fathers. And it was the oral law, the oral tradition, the Talmud. Many of you have heard of the Talmud, and that's what this was. It was the oral tradition, the speaking. And it defined correct behavior in a number of ways, and it also represented an interpretation of and a supplement to the Pentateuch, to the books of Moses. So you had the books of Moses, and then you had the Talmud, which explained it, interpreted it, and kind of added some things to it. They had the written law and the oral law. And you see the oral law, the Talmud, sadly started to take precedence for them over the law of the very Word of God. In chapter 6 of Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount, which I've already alluded to this chapter. Jesus gives six illustrations of passages. You know what, I think it's mostly chapter five that he does this. And he's talking about passages that were wrongly interpreted by those that are reading there. And he would give their correct meaning, their correct what it was really meant there. And he would say, you have heard it said, But I say to you..." Now it's very clear there in the Greek that He was careful not to say, you have read or you have seen it written. He said, you have heard it said. So His issue was not with the writings, it was not with the Law, it was not with the books of Moses. His issue was with what was being passed down and taught by these teachers. It was the oral interpretation. And you see, they meant well at first, putting this Talmud together. It was all good intentions, good reasons. They wanted a way to protect people from accidentally sinning, from accidentally transgressing God's law. So they made several rules and codes. And they made these hedges. And we think of hedges, because hedges is something that... I'm not going to feed back with my mic. Sometimes I need to walk, but I don't want to scare everybody with that. But picture hedges, landscaping hedges, and they would slow you down. Actually, that's something that really slowed down the Allies when we were invading France to liberate France. The hedges slowed down a lot of the movement that was there. And so they were thinking, okay, let's put these hedges up to protect the people from even accidentally sinning. And so, okay, no one has a problem with that. I think hedges are very helpful in the spiritual But, hedges make great servants, but poor masters. Remember that. If the law of God said, don't come within 5 feet, they would say, well let's make that 10 feet. Just to make sure. Again, great servants, but poor masters. Just like cars. A car, to get you to work, is a great servant if it's serving you. But it makes a poor master. But you see, things started to change. As well-intentioned as it was when it first started, things started to change. And the hedge started taking priority over the original intention. Soon, their strict adherence to this hedge caused them to forget what they were even protecting to begin with. God was at the center. The rules were about approaching Him and pleasing Him, but they forgot the very reason for the rules, and they paid attention only to the rules, and they forgot about God somewhere in there. So that was the Pharisees. That's what they were coming up with, and that's what they were following. And now the last thing I want to explain to really help us understand is just the Sabbath. This is exactly what happened with the Sabbath. These hedges. This is the final point I want to make here to better understand it. But let's start by looking at what God actually required. with the Sabbath. So what is the Sabbath? This was the seventh day of the Jewish week. It was the day of rest. And we see here in the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20, starting in verse 8, it says, Moses writes, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, 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, the transgression of this law was treated as a capital offense. And we have proof of that in Exodus 31, verses 12 to 14. And you see, in the first century Judaism, the observance of the Sabbath was one of the three most important and distinctive badges of Jewish life, along with circumcision and with dietary laws. This was a tithe of their time that was dedicated to God, just like their finances. It was a sign of Israel's special covenant. They were the only ones that had this Sabbath day. It was a sign of their special covenant with God. And as we have just read, it was an imitation of God's rest after creation. But just like all the rules that started out with good intentions, the hedge itself became more important than a day of rest that was set aside for God. Let me give you an example. See, they were only allowed to go a certain distance from their home on the Sabbath. If you went past further than a certain distance that they had decided, they figured, well, that was work. Well, what they would figure is, OK, if you had your handkerchief, your handkerchief is a part of you. And so, in some weird way, they figured that if you drop your handkerchief, that's kind of like a second home. It's kind of like a base of operations. And so they figured, okay, I'm only allowed to travel this far from my home. They got there. But if I drop my handkerchief, now I can go that same distance again. And this was all fine. They taught this. And they taught that it was fine to do things like that. Now, You're hearing that today, and it seemed like they were kind of starting to miss the point there. It does. It seems pretty clear there. And again, just like the car in my opening parable, the hedges are now starting to own them. They're starting to pay more attention again to these hedges. Even currently, this is the case with Jewish families. I know pushing a button on an elevator is considered work, so they take the stairs. My other job is as a firefighter. And we once had a boy come to the fire station. This was near the Hollywood area, many Jewish families there. And he ran to the fire station because his grandfather was having a heart attack, they believe, but to pick up the phone and call would be work. So they sent this poor little guy down three blocks. And again, so I'm just bringing you examples of what is still today, 2015, this is going on. Extinguishing a fire is forbidden. That's considered work. So they're very strict on these hedges. Now, the oral tradition, these hedges, explain that it was unlawful to eat grain on the Sabbath because it was considered work. It was one of the 39 forbidden acts to do on the Sabbath. Picking grain could be understood as reaping. That's how they would see it. And in order to eat it, they'd actually have to rub the grain out of the husks. And that was threshing. So they saw that as reaping and threshing. So you couldn't get the grain out, or you'd be working. It was on the list of forbidden acts. So now, it seems like a long intro and a lot of context, and you'll see why it was all important, but now with those three, maybe four cultural and religious points that I just brought up about the Talmud, about who the Pharisees are, about the Sabbath, and eating grain, now we can understand the picture of what's going on here in our passage a little better. So now we see why the Pharisees had such a problem. It was not that they cared about the eating of the grain, but that their issue, or at least what they were saying, really their problem was with Jesus, but the issue that they're saying is that this is being done on the Sabbath. This is why they said to Him, and again back to our passage, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. And now, Jesus answers. And this is where we find our first testimony. Really, He's calling up His first witness to testify who He is, that Jesus is greater than David. So He said to them, starting in verse 3, 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 bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Now, notice that He says, have you not read? When addressing the disciples, when He's addressing His own, or a crowd, He always says, you have read, you have read. But now the negative is being stressed here. I believe it's because He's speaking of the Pharisees, these false teachers. And He says, have you not read? Which, as good Pharisees, of course they've read it. They've read this passage of the Law. But they're obviously missing something. So let's look at the story of David and what is being referred to here. And we find it, you don't have to turn there, I'll just sum it up for you. You find the story, you can read it later if you like, in 1 Samuel, chapter 21, verses 1 through 6. And what was happening was David was hiding from Saul, who was trying to kill him. David had already fought and killed Goliath, and now he's hiding from Saul, the king of Israel, who's trying to kill him. And this takes place, this story takes place at Nab, which was a temporary sanctuary set up after the Philistines destroyed Shiloh. So David's there and he's talking to the priest Ahimelech, who asks him, who asks David, what are you doing here? And David answers, well, we're on King's business. Yeah, he's lying. And he asked for food. He asked for bread. Well, and you know what? He was on the king's business, so I'll wrap that part up. A whole separate topic on the righteous lie. But anyways, so he was on the king's business, but he asked him for food. And there's no more common bread, the scriptures tell us. There's only holy bread, the bread of the presence. Now, You can read about the bread of the Presence in Exodus 25. But the instructions were to bake 12 loaves and they were for Aaron and his sons only. This was bread that was only for the priests. There's no mention in that story in 1st Samuel that it was the Sabbath. But we know it was the Sabbath because this special bread was prepared on Friday and eaten only on the Sabbath. This is why Jesus is able to bring this story from 1st Samuel into the conversation. The fact that the bread was around was proof that the day that David showed up was the Sabbath, for that was the only bread around. And even more important, However, it is the fact that David and his men ate the bread. That's Christ's point. They ate the bread. This is what Jesus is bringing up. Jesus makes the point at the end of verse 4 that this was lawful only for the priests. And yet David and his men ate it. They went against the rules and the Scriptures, and yet nowhere are they condemned for this. And now Christ brings up the point, and He's done. He doesn't even explain it, because they would have understood what He was saying. He walks away from that one, and He goes on to His next point. So, we're left to see this and go, well, how does this fit into His point? What is His point? What's He saying? How is bringing up this Old Testament story of David a defense in any way? And you see, I'll tell you that there's only one way that this works. And you can examine this and try to see it from different points. And the only way that bringing this up as an argument, as a defense, is by viewing it a certain way. And I'll get to that. And we see the answer in verse 6. But the only way that I could use, if this was me, Mo, using this passage from the Old Testament, and I was defending my actions, the only way it would work would be if I was greater than David. And I'll explain. Not just any guy could point to this story and say, well, David did it. Because that's no defense. Well, yeah, that's David. Now, who you are does matter. It just does. Some people, because of who they are or who they know, can do certain things that others can't. There's a story I remember hearing in college. I went to Cal Poly Pomona for a few quarters. And I remember hearing this story. And we had those monster classrooms that sat like 300 people. And one day, there was a final exam. And the professors don't know the students, not in a classroom that big. But there's a final exam. The students were all given three hours to complete this exam. But one student kept working on his, and the professor thought, well, he should know the rules. So the professor just started grading all the papers. And this young man comes down after he's done about the fourth hour, and he brings his exam to turn it in. And the professor says, I'm sorry, the deadline has passed. You're not going to pass this exam. And the young man leans forward and says, professor, do you have any idea who I am? The professor says, no. Now he's starting to worry. Is he the dean's son? Is he some major donor's son? And so the professor tells him, no, I'm sorry, I don't. And so the young man takes his exam, takes the stack that needs to be corrected, sticks it right in the middle somewhere, lines it up, and just walks out the door. And so why would the professor be worried about something like that? Why was he even thinking, well, who is this guy? It's because he was concerned with who this student is. And I'm not saying right or wrong. I'm not saying it's good to know who's there. But my point is, who you are does matter. The only way that this Old Testament story of David works as a defense for Jesus is if He is greater than David. That is it. There's no other way. So say you're touring the White House. Say you take your family, and you're touring the White House, and you manage to escape from all the people that are the tour. And you go into the Oval Office, and you kick your feet up on the desk, and you put your hands back. It's not going to go well for you. I don't know the specifics, but that will not be one of your best days. And you will not be able to say, well, Look, here's a picture of the President's son doing this. What's the big deal? Because again, it's the same rules, but who you are, who you know, Does matter. And let me tell you something about David. David was a big shot, still is, in the Jewish world. He was not just a king, he was the most important and memorable king that Israel ever had. Now in this story he wasn't king yet. Also, God made his promise, his covenant to David, that his descendant will sit on the throne forever. What Jesus was saying here was not missed on the Pharisees. I promise you that. I guarantee. In His argument, He's placing Himself above David. He's making a huge claim here. That again, we just kind of read past. Or think, okay, Jesus is saying He's greater than these things. But this was ground-shaking. This changed the world for those listening. And in His first testimony, Jesus is claiming that He is greater than David. The greatest King. of Israel. So now, that was the first testimony. I believe he called up David as a testimony, as a witness to say, I am greater than him. Have you not read what they did? Now let's look at the second testimony, that of the law. For it testifies, our second point, that Jesus Christ is greater than the priests and the temple. And we see that in verses 5 through 6. Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? Again, have you not read? Not read what? That on the Sabbath the priests don't follow the Sabbath rules. This doesn't apply to them. They're an exception, is what he's saying. He's making a pretty obvious point here. The priests have to work on the Sabbath. No one's arguing that. The priests did not have to defend themselves every Sabbath and say, well, hey, we don't have to work today. The very fact that the law required the work that they did in the temple proves that it was in accordance with God's will, right? The priests were appointed for this divine service and the temple required it. So the temple was the focal point of God's presence among His people. First it was in the temporary tabernacle, but then it was in the temple. And you see it was a matter of priorities. The authority of the office of priest and the necessity of the services overrode the Sabbath rules as it applied to everybody else. And many people thought, well, the Sabbath rules can't be violated at all. So Jesus, in bringing up this point, has now actually brought up two important points that bear witness on His defense. Number one, He's showing there's an exception. There is an exception. These hardline Pharisees, who were only interested in following the rules, now see that these rules have an actual purpose, a center, a meaning to what they were there for. They were not just about the hedges. And the second thing that we see is since the exception was allowed for the Temple, it's clear that the Temple was then of greater importance than the Sabbath. There is an order of priority. Some things are more important than others, and they missed that. The priest served at the Temple, and the law dictated work for the Temple on the Sabbath, so the Temple trumped the Sabbath in a way. The Temple was up there in importance. What would that mean if something was more important than the Temple? If the Temple trumps the Sabbath, what if something was more important than the Temple? What does that mean for them? And again, this only works as a defense for Christ. The only reason He can bring this up and use it as a defense for Himself is if He is greater than the Temple. And this time He just says it plainly and clearly. We see that in verse 6. I tell you something greater than the Temple is here. And now, I'll bring up our third testimony, the third witness, and it's Jesus Christ himself. For he starts there, he says, I tell you. Jesus Christ is now his own witness. Now, I wouldn't take this too far, but I found it interesting as I was studying this, that the witnesses that he's using so far have been found in the book of Samuel, which in the Hebrew Bible, in their Tanakh, they would have considered that one of the prophets. They would have categorized that in the prophets. So we have that story from 1 Samuel about David. And then this other passage that we've seen here is from the Law. And so basically, we have the Law and the Prophets, which is the entire Old Testament. That's what they saw it as. The Law and the Prophets are the testimonies. The Law and the Prophets are the very witnesses to Christ's greatness and that He is greater than these things. So, the third is Jesus Christ is greater than the Sabbath. So, I told you and showed you how Jesus Christ is greater than the Pharisees or is greater than the Temple. these other measures, and now we're seeing that He's greater than the Sabbath. So first of all, we've already touched on this a little bit, but I can't truly explain to you how utterly shocking this must have been for them to hear. The Scriptures do not tell us their reaction. We're not told in any way what they thought. upon hearing this or what they said and I think it's because they must have just stood there with their mouths open. They were probably too shocked to even tear anything or yell out as was their custom when they were in these times. But the tabernacle which was set up under God's direction in the wilderness and then the fixed temple were both understood to be the focus of God's relationship with His people. The temple was more than just a place of worship. It was not like coming here to church. It was not this... I love this building. I've seen... It's really exciting what's going on back there. The baptismal tank that's coming up. But it was different than just coming to a building like this. For as you know, as you've been taught, you are the temple. You are the church. You, the people, the saints, right? It's not the building here. But it was different for them. The temple was very different. And so, Now here's this man who is sinning. He's not really sinning, but in their view, they're confusing this with their spiritual blindness. They thought he was. And he's disregarding the Sabbath. He's hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors. And he's saying that he is greater than the temple. This was unpardonable treason of the worst kind for them. They understood what he was saying. Since the temple trumps the Sabbath, Jesus trumps the temple. Therefore, by the simple rules of logic and reasoning, Jesus trumps the Sabbath. If A is greater than B and B is greater than C, then A must be greater than C. But, just so they won't miss it, Christ even more clearly spells it out for them. First, He quotes Hosea 6.6, which He's quoted already. You see that in verse 7. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. you would not have condemned the gilless. He's quoted this in Matthew 9.13. There was already very similar circumstances. Basically, he was being accused of unrighteousness because he was hanging out with sinners. And He uses Hosea 6.6 to let them know, you guys are missing it. You're missing the big picture. You don't get it at all. All your sacrifice, your temple sacrifice, all the righteous deeds that you guys think you're doing is missing the point. For they are worthless without mercy. They're worthless without the very heart for which they're intended for. You're only concerned with external religious rituals and you're completely missing the heart behind it. Your concern with these hedges has made you blind to the center, the very purpose that these hedges were even set up for. And that was a major theme in the Sermon on the Mount, to take them back to the heart of what it was intended to be. He said this again in chapter 5 of Matthew. He said, He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it the way that it was meant to be fulfilled, through the heart and purpose behind it. And if you understand this, you would not have condemned the guiltless, our passage tells us. But they didn't understand it, did they? Then He clearly tells them the answer to their question, their very first question. So why do your men do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath? And the answer is, because A is greater than C. Because I am greater than the Sabbath. Verse 8, For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Now in the next passage, if you were to continue reading Matthew, you would see this played out as Matthew heals a paralytic's hand. and receives the same accusations on the Sabbath. It's still the same day. He's saying, I am greater than David. I am greater than the priest. I am greater than the law. I am greater than the temple. I am greater than the Sabbath. And now, here He is in their presence, and they're completely missing Him. All these things were there to point to Him, to point to Christ. That was their very purpose. They were shadows of the reality. We know how a shadow works. It's not the real thing. So they were symbols of the reality. And here He was, the very reality standing before them. And they were so spiritually blind that they were demanding that He, the reality, bow down and conform to the shadows, to the hedges. They had it all. messed up. And remember, Matthew's goal and the entire purpose of his book was to prove to the Jews that this man, this Jesus, who has just been condemned and killed like a common criminal, was the Redeemer that they had been waiting for. And from the very beginning of the book, we see in Matthew chapter 1 verse 1, He starts His book in this way. And many of us, many of you maybe even just started this January 1st. Decided, OK, I'm reading the New Testament this year. Or whenever it is, you get to it. And we probably made it this far, right? To verse 1. And it says, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Many people start this book so many times, and we just read past how amazing that one verse is. how the original audience would have received this. For I remind you that Christ is not a last name. Christ is a title. It's the appointed one, the anointed one. Excuse me, the Messiah, right? And so here you are in the first century, and you get this letter, this book that says, this is a book of the genealogy of Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one, the son of David, the son of Abraham. He's the fulfillment of the promises that were made to Abraham, right? Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 15, the covenant made with Abraham. He's the fulfillment of that. It's telling us right there. He's the fulfillment of the promises made to David that his offspring will rule forever from the throne. David is a great, as a great human king, pointed to the much greater king. Right? Psalm 110. There's a much greater king who's coming after David. And now, boldly, they get this book that's saying this was Jesus Christ. This guy that they just hung up and killed like a common criminal. And this Jesus is greater than David. He's greater than the priest. You see, the priest, they were human mediators between God and man. But the book of Hebrews tells us that that was not necessary. We don't need this anymore. We don't need these priests, for we are all priests. We are of the priesthood. We see that in the New Testament. We have a forever High Priest and Mediator in Jesus. All the sacrifices and all the rituals that they did, all the feasts, find their ultimate fulfillment in Him. The blood that they sacrificed was symbolic. of the blood that would one day be spilt for those that were His. Dying for sinners, taking their place on the cross because it was the only way. The only way for a sinner to ever, ever stand before a just and holy God and not be smote down is by the blood of Christ, is because our sin was paid for by Jesus. He had to die to do this so that those who are given to Him may believe and have eternal life. with Him. And that was the only way. So we have our forever High Priest and Mediator. Jesus is greater than the law. The law that the priests and the people obeyed all pointed to Him. All of it. Remember at the end of chapter 11 in Matthew when He said, take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. He was contrasting that with the only yoke that they had ever known. The only yoke they'd ever known was the yoke of the law. But now, here He was in their presence, and His yoke was different. It was to be done and seen in a different way. The purpose of the law was to show God's people how to approach Him. To live lives that were set apart for Him, consecrated for Him. And now here He was, approaching them. The fulfillment of the law pointed to Him. The temple. Jesus is greater than the temple. Same like the priest. It was how to approach God. It was the physical manifestation of God's presence. But now, here He was in their presence. Notice what all these have in common. David, the law, the priest, the temple, the Sabbath. They were all part of the Old Testament covenant. They were to show how to approach God in the Old Testament. They were all in place until the Messiah came. They were all there for that reason. Nowhere is this clearer than when we look at Jesus in the temple. We see from Matthew in chapter 21 that He drives out all the merchants and the money changers in His final week, the Passion Week. And then in chapter 24, verses 1 and 2, He tells them that not one stone will remain upon another, speaking of the destruction of the temple. And in Matthew 26.60, his words about the temple are brought up against him when he said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. And he was speaking of his own body. We know that now. Interesting that he was saying the temple and speaking of his own body. He was mocked on the cross. And he was told, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. In chapter 24, Jesus explains how the destruction of the temple symbolized the end of the old order. In chapter 27, verse 51, after His death, the tearing, we sang about this, this morning. We sang about the veil being torn. After His death, the tearing of the temple curtain shows, again, the end of the old order. Never again are we to have this partition, this separation from God. And there is, church, there is so much theology. If we were to just talk about the Temple and study the Temple, there is so much theology there of the Temple and Jesus. But there is no question from the Scriptures that its purpose was there to point to the Messiah, the Christ. It was a foreshadow of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And this is what He was talking about. In chapter 9, when He said that a new wineskin was needed, that the old one would burst, a whole new system was needed, a whole new covenant. And here it was. The old had to make room for the new. It was passing away. And here they were, living in this extremely unique moment of redemptive history, when the transition was occurring. The kingdom of God was being ushered in and it's no coincidence that the kingdom has been brought up so much in the book of Matthew. And in the next chapter we see, in chapter 13, we get into the parables of the kingdom. That's what Christ is teaching on here. Everything. Church should point to Him. This church here points to Him. Your pastor points to Him. Your singing points to Him. Your giving points to Him. Your prayers point to Him, and they should. Not only that, but all these symbols and these foreshadows that I've been discussing, not only pointed to Him, but they also found a complete fulfillment in Him and Him only. Remember, He is our Sabbath. as He has made clear. He is our rest. He is your rest, Church. He's your rest now, in the world, and He will one day, and now He's promised to never leave you or forsake you, but He will also one day be your final rest, your final, your eternal Sabbath. He took our sins and nailed them to the cross, as the Scriptures say. For our sake He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Church, He is Lord over the priests, Lord over David, Lord over the law, Lord over this world. He is Lord over all. And we have seen here in these first eight verses that Jesus has brought up three witnesses, three testimonies to prove that He is Lord, so that you may know that He is Lord over your life as well. Let me ask you, Church, is He Lord over you? Amen. Or, like the Pharisees, can it be missed? And you see, we all come hardwired. as Pharisees. That's how we arrive. It actually takes work together with the Holy Spirit to free us from that. Whether we know it or not, we make these hedges. And they're good. They're well-intentioned. But sometimes we lose sight, and we can lose sight of the whole point. And you see, Matthew's purpose in this passage was not just to show you how not to be. Don't be like the Pharisees, which I agree with that. Don't be like the Pharisees. But that wasn't the only point. There was something much bigger that we're seeing here. It's a passage to show us more clearly who Christ is, to fill in more of Him, that we may see Him more, that we may love Him more. For none of this, you guys are learning some amazing things in your weekly classes also. And none of that is just for knowledge, just sheer intellectual assent, just that you can know these things or debate them. No. It's that you may know more of your Lord, that you may love Him more. It all has a purpose. As a believer, does this knowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord over all, does it impact your life? Do we live in this way? Or have we made Jesus more like a manager of a certain area of our lives? Do we have our lives compartmentalized? And what I mean by that is some people do live this way. They say, well, this is who I am at church. This is who I am at school. This is who I am around certain friends. This is who I am at work. This is who I am on vacation when no one is around. And do we have different lords over our lives? Is He like the head of the religious department in our life? And He gets a big say on Sundays, but that's about it. Or even less than that, is He the manager of our fire insurance department? And we just want Him to save us from going to hell, but we don't want Him to be our Lord. We don't want to have a life of serving Him, of holiness, of godliness, because that takes work. We will control our wallets, and our kids, and our marriages, and our jobs, and our things, and we'll do things our way. But he gets the religion department. Or church. Is he Lord of your life? His yoke is easy, and his burden is light, and he beckons you and calls you to him. He can take it. He can be your eternal rest. His hands are big enough to take it, for he's greater than all things. Paul tells us in Colossians chapter 1, for by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. All things were created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. All things, church, means all things. Your math class, your car, your house, your family, your church, He holds it all together. It's all for Him, through Him, by Him. And if you don't know Him in this way, He beckons you and calls you to Himself. He pleads with you, as do I. Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden. Come to Me, and I will give you rest. Church, how great is our God. And the Bible tells us, and these are all words, these are all titles pulled directly from the Scriptures. Church, He is Lord. He is the Lord of the Sabbath, Lord of hosts, the Giver of life. His titles are Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Son of Man, Son of David, the Son of God. He is the Second Adam. He is the Righteous Judge of the Universe. He is our Rock and our High Tower, the psalmists call Him. He is the Word. He is the Way. He is the Truth. He is the Life. He is the Source of all of our life. He is the Sustainer of life. He is life itself. He is the Light of the World, the Bread of Life and the Living Water. He is the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd. He is the Faithful One. He is love. He is the Lamb of God, the Lord of glory, the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Lord over David. He is the Lord over the temple, Lord over the priest, Lord over the law. And he is Lord over this church. He is my Lord. He is your Lord. He is Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords and King of kings. And please stand with me now as we pray. And I'll ask your pastor to come up and bless his church. Father, thank you that you are Lord over all. Thank you that we can glean from a passage such as this and see that, Jesus, you didn't come to be a role model or an example or just simply point to a better way of living here on earth. You were making it very clear who you are and how all of the Old Testament pointed to You, how everything points back to You now in the New Testament. How You are the complete fulfillment. Father, I ask for Your blessing upon God's Garden Church, upon Pastor Hector and Pastor Ishmael and Pastor Robert, though he moved, Lord, and I just pray for Your blessing here as these men and their wives and their families just work alongside each other. to feed, nourish, encourage, and teach your people here. I pray for the flock here to care and love them also, Lord, for they all share their love for you. They all share their allegiance to you, for they have been removed from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son. And we thank you for your work here in this church. We thank you for your presence through your word that we may come and learn of these things. And we thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are Lord over all. Amen.