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take your Bibles with me and
open up to the Gospel of Mark as we continue to make our way
through the shortest of the four Gospels in the New Testament,
but not the least important by any stretch. And we will be looking
this morning primarily at chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. I'm going
to begin reading, though, Back in verse 23 of chapter 2.
One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they
made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
And the Pharisees were saying to him, Look, why are they doing
what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them, Have you
never read what David did? When he was in need and was hungry,
he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God,
in the time of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the bread
of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests
to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him. And he said
to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even
of the Sabbath. Again, he entered the synagogue,
and a man was there with a wizard hand, and they watched Jesus. to see whether he would heal
him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said
to the man with the withered hand, Come here. And he said
to them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm,
to save life or to kill? But they were silent. And he
looked around them with anger. He looked around at them with
anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. And he said to the
man, stretch out your hand, and he stretched it out, and his
hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately
held counsel with the Herodians against him how to destroy him." This healing miracle which Christ
performed in the beginning of chapter 3 is linked with the
story of the disciples picking heads of grain on the Sabbath.
which I just read for you. Both of them had to do with keeping
the Sabbath. And between these two examples,
we read these two statements or teachings of our Lord, that
the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, and
secondly, so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Last
week we looked at the first example and how it illustrated this teaching
of Christ, and this week we will be looking at this second example
of Jesus healing the man with the wizard hand as an illustration
to help us better understand these two statements. Looking
at the text, we see that first of all, Jesus entered a synagogue
on the Sabbath. We do not know exactly where
Jesus was at this particular point in his ministry, but Matthew's
account states of the same event states that right after the discussion
about whether it is right or not, to pluck heads of grain
and eat it on the Sabbath, that he went on from there and entered
their synagogue right after that. And then it goes into this story
of the man with the withered hand. Now we cannot be 100% sure,
but it seems very likely that these two events happened on
the same Sabbath day, and Jesus' conversations were with the same
group of Pharisees. They had just challenged Jesus
out in the grain field about letting his disciples work in
the grain field because they were reaping on the Sabbath by
taking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hand, blowing off
the chaff and eating the seeds. And now they are following Jesus
into their own synagogue and they are challenging him again
as to whether or not he will heal this man on the Sabbath. Because there was this man in
the synagogue that day who had a withered hand. And they watched
Jesus to see whether He would heal them so that they might
accuse Him. That was their desire. That was
what was on their mind. They were consciously watching
Him with scrutiny, hoping to find faults with Him. As we read the account, we can
feel the tension growing between the Pharisees and Jesus. And
this is the fifth of the five confrontations of Jesus with
the Pharisees that Mark has put forward to us beginning in the
beginning of chapter two. This is the second of two confrontations
on the exact same day over how the Sabbath is to be observed.
And in this case, the man who had a withered hand served as
a test case and the Pharisees wanted to see what Jesus would
do. So we read in Matthew's account again that they asked him, is
it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? They were prodding him. to see
what he would do so that they might accuse him. Being put to
the test, and according to Luke's account, Jesus knew the thoughts
and intentions of the Pharisees, because Luke's rendition of this
says that he understood their thoughts before they even spoke
them. Jesus tells the man with the wizard hand to come and stand
basically in front of everyone at the synagogue that day so
that the people might see what Jesus would do to him And then
Jesus responds to the Pharisees and puts their own question back
upon them. And he phrased it, but he phrased
it in a different way. He phrased their question. They
asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, which we read
in Matthew. And here in Mark, we see Jesus' response where
it says, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm,
to save life or to kill? Now according to their own rabbinic
oral tradition, according to the Pharisee's own teaching itself,
it was permitted to give medical attention to somebody, even on
the Sabbath, if it was a life or death situation. At least
they already understood this much and agreed with Jesus this
far. Yet Jesus took what they did understand about what people
are allowed to do on the Sabbath, and he pointed out that the principal
reason why it is lawful to heal someone on the Sabbath in a life
or death situation applies to other situations as well. Situations
which are not life and death situations, such as a man with
a withered hand. The man had a withered hand,
but certainly his life was not at stake. But notice how Jesus
rephrased their question here. He asked him two questions in
a way that demonstrates that the two questions he was asking
are principally the same question. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to
do good or to do harm? And secondly, to save life or
to kill? Jesus, the way he phrases it,
says they're asking the same thing. But you guys are saying
that it's okay to do the second but not the first. Saving a life on the Sabbath
was permissible according to the Pharisees, but not simply
doing good to someone. Yet Jesus was teaching that both
questions should be answered according to the same principle
upon which the same law of the Sabbath is built. And what is
more, Jesus didn't ask, is it lawful to do good or to not do
good? But he says, is it lawful to
do good or to do harm? indicating that it's one or the
other. Should I do this man good and heal his withered hand, or
should I do him harm? Essentially showing that if there
is good that you can do for someone, and it's within your power to
do that, to help them meet a basic human need that they have, even
on the Sabbath, and you do not do it, you are harming him, which
is a sin. that flew right directly in the
face of what the Pharisees saw. And again, we see Jesus doing
something here, which he does over and over again in the way
in which he interacts with the Pharisees. They ask him a very
pointed question about a particular detail of the law of God, about
how a certain law is supposed to be observed in a certain particular
circumstance, And he addresses their specific question by expanding
the discussion to not only include that particular situation, but
the principle which lies beneath the law itself, so that he actually
teaches the whole law in such a way that if they understand
it, they can come to the right conclusion about how to apply
it in this principle. Jesus does that over and over
and over again. He doesn't simply answer their question directly.
He teaches them the foundation of the reason why the question
ought to be answered the way that it is. After Jesus so simply
and effectively phrases the question in this way, the Pharisees remained
silent. Is it good to do good or harm,
to save life or to kill? They remained silent because
what could they say? Their scrutiny over this whole
issue was contradicting the very principle that underlie the fourth
commandment. which says to keep the Sabbath
and do not work on it. It contradicted the principle
behind the Sabbath. They were contradicting themselves
essentially as well in their own teaching. So rather than
being teachable and grateful to Jesus for giving them a greater
understanding of what the law of God means on the Sabbath,
they remained silent, not willing to give in an inch to Jesus.
Not willing to have a teachable spirit and learn more about God's
purpose for the Sabbath. Because they were not interested
in learning the truth. They were only interested in finding a
reason to destroy Christ. They were only interested in
promoting themselves as those who held truth. And they didn't
want Jesus to take any of the credit that they desired for
themselves. As I was preparing the sermon
this week, an interesting question came into my mind. Most of us
know basically what a weaker brother issue is. We've heard
that phrase, a weaker brother issue. It's a principle taught
to us first in First Corinthians eight concerning matters of Christian
liberty. If your brother or a fellow Christian
believes that doing something is a sin. When it is not necessarily
a sin, but rather a matter of conscience, we ought to refrain
from doing it in front of them. lest we encourage them to violate
their own conscience. Some Christians, for example,
think that it's a sin to drink alcohol. Other Christians don't
think it's a sin to drink alcohol. Well, if you don't think it's
a sin, but you know your brother does think it's a sin, you shouldn't
drink alcohol in front of him and cause him to violate his
own conscience. That's the weaker brother issue. So, here's a question. Jesus knew that the Pharisees
believed that it was a sin to heal on the Sabbath unless it
was a life-or-death issue. He knew that. And having a withered
hand is not a life-or-death issue. Jesus also knew that it would
really make these religious leaders upset, to say the least, if he
went ahead and healed this man on the Sabbath. So why didn't Jesus simply say,
Look, it would not be a sin for me to heal him on the Sabbath,
but for your sake, I will wait and I will heal him later tonight
when the sun sets. Tell me where you live and I'll
come to your house when the Sabbath is over, when the sun is down
and I will heal you. Why didn't Jesus do that? Jesus could have done that and
still have taught about what we ought to do and not do on
the Sabbath and still had compassion on this man and healed this man.
But he could have avoided being so offensive to the weaker brother
of the Pharisees. But he didn't do that. Why not? Why not? Again, we need to look
closely at his teaching here in order to understand the answer
to this question. He's teaching that to do good
for others on the Sabbath and meet the needs of others when
you are able to do so is something that the Sabbath was designed
for. But he's also saying that if you do not do good to your
brother when you are able to, it's a sin. Now this is true every day of
the week, but especially on the Sabbath, because God gave the
Sabbath rest to mankind for the express purpose of meeting needs
that we as human beings have. The day of rest Every one day
in seven helps to meet our physical needs as our bodies need a literal
day of rest from labor. It meets our relational needs
as human beings, because God created us in his image as relational
beings. It meets our relational needs,
providing one day every week to be set aside from other days
where we can fellowship with our friends, with our neighbors,
with our church family and with our own family. And it meets
our spiritual needs where we gather together to be fed by
the Word of God and to worship Him as a corporate body. And
to gather together and allow God to minister to us through
the means of grace that He has ordained. So it's not merely
a day where we meet the needs of one another, but this is a
day when God feeds us and nourishes us through His Word. And that's
the primary function of the Sabbath. All of the other benefits that
we receive, our physical needs being met and our relational
needs being met, are secondary. But our spiritual needs being
met is primary. Where God comes down and meets our needs that
we have and nourishes us through His Word, that is what the day
is set aside for. That is the purpose that God
gave the Sabbath to us to accomplish. so that we might feed upon the
Word of God and to have received blessings from the Lord. Now,
Jesus Christ is the Word of God Himself. The Pharisees did not
want Jesus to meet the needs of this man because it was the
Sabbath. But the Sabbath was made for
man, especially for the explicit purpose of Jesus Christ coming
to us and meeting our needs. That's the whole reason for the
Sabbath. For Jesus to minister to us. And they were watching
to see if Jesus would minister to this man and heal him. Their doctrine, even though they
may well have had good intentions, was not simply adding some legalistic
rules to the Sabbath law. It was actually destroying the
very purpose of the Sabbath. If they were simply adding some
rules in a legalistic way to the law, then you can make a
case that it would be better to go ahead and abide by those
rules in order to not be offensive to them. Consider that a weaker
brother issue. But they weren't simply adding
rules to the Sabbath. They were completely destroying
the purpose for the Sabbath, which was for Christ to come
to his people and to meet our needs in ways that only he can
do. They had a very poor understanding
of the purpose of the Sabbath. Sinclair Ferguson gives this
analogy about the Pharisees' view of the Sabbath. He states
that the Sabbath is like a golf course that God has given to
us. The Sabbath was made for man,
not man for the Sabbath, right? It's like a golf course that
God has given to us. What the Pharisees were doing here is
looking at themselves as operators and maintenance men of the golf
course. They took good care of the golf course to preserve it.
And they went to great lengths to ensure that the fairways remained
beautiful and as pristine as possible, but they did this by
not allowing any golfer to ever play on them, but instead requiring them to
take all of their shots from the rough grass off to the side,
lest you profane the Sabbath, lest you profane this beautiful
golf course that God has given to us. But fairways on golf courses,
like Sabbath days that God has given to us are things that are
intended to be enjoyed by men Not preserved as living museums
That we cannot do anything joyful on lest we profane it the Sabbath
was given to us to enjoy and The Pharisees were saying don't
enjoy it or you'll make it bad. They were destroying the whole
purpose of it It was intended to be a blessing, but the Pharisees,
with all of their man-made regulations, were turning it into a burden
and prohibiting people from doing what they ought to do on the
Sabbath day. Jesus decided to heal this man on the Sabbath,
in front of everybody, rather than later, even though the Pharisees
were sitting there saying, stay off the fairway, you're going
to ruin it. And Jesus said, no, God gave this day for man, for
his good, for his enjoyment, and especially to be a day when
I come and dispense blessings to my people. For you see, I
am the Lord of the Sabbath. I am the Lord of the Sabbath.
It is a day given to you so that you might come to me so that
I can heal you, so that I can bless you. so that I can nourish
you, so that I can provide for you, so that I can love you.
Because I am the Lord of the Sabbath, and I am a good and
benevolent Lord. Today given to you for you to
come to me and receive blessing from me." And he looked at the
man and he said, stretch out your hand. And he did. And his hand was restored. The
bones and the muscles in his hand were that were withered
and in atrophy suddenly grew to their normal size and he was
healed. This would be an astounding miracle
to watch. I keep hearing ads on the radio this week for a
Benny Hinn concert coming to Harrisburg soon. Anyone want
to go with me? You're not going to see this
kind of miracle at a Benny Hinn concert. You're not going to
see someone with cerebral palsy or whatever this man had that
has withered body parts suddenly being restored and grown back.
This kind of a miracle was astounding. And seeing it, you would expect
that those watching this miracle occur, you would expect that
they would be overjoyed for this man who lived in their community,
most likely, whom they knew who had been healed and restored
by the Lord. They should be rejoicing with him. And they should be
praising Jesus for the work that he had done. for his goodness,
for his love, for his mercy, and for his power, and acknowledge
that his power came from the Lord, so that they might know
indeed that the message that he proclaimed was the truth.
That's how they should have responded. And I'm sure that some of the
people sitting there that day did respond this way, but the
Pharisees did not. When they watched the man who
literally, his hand grew back, Instead of celebrating with him
and giving Thanksgiving to God, what did they do? They went out
and immediately held a meeting with the Herodians in order to
team up with them to try to find a way to destroy Jesus. Now, I want you to understand
something here to help the impact of this statement to really come
to full term in your minds. The Pharisees absolutely hated
the Romans. The Romans had conquered Israel
and they were an occupying force in their land of Israel. The
Romans imposed their Roman laws upon them. The Romans imposed
Roman taxation upon them and they hated all of these things.
The Romans took away certain things that they used to be able
to do and they couldn't stand the Romans. But the Pharisees
actually hated the Herodians more than they hated the Romans. The Herodians were supporters
of Herod Antipas, the Roman appointed tetrarch of Galilee, King Herod. There was a number of Herods,
they all had the same name. They weren't very creative in that
family. King Herod was the king of the
Jews at that time, but he was not the king He was not king
because people wanted him to be king. He was not king because
God had ordained him to be king of Israel. He wasn't even of
the line of David. He wasn't even of the tribe of
Judah. In fact, I believe, if my memory serves correct, depending
on which era this was, he only had 25% Jewish blood in him. He's not even fully Jewish. He
was a Gentile acting like a Jewish king. Because the Rome had come in
and set him up to be the king. They gave him his rule. They
supported his kingship as a way to help them maintain order and
submission amongst the Jews. Because the Jews were very stubborn
and they did not submit to Roman rule very easily. And it was
a huge problem. So this was one way in which
Rome tried to help resolve that problem. They set up a Jewish
king saying you have your own king now. But they couldn't stand
him. He wasn't a rightful king. And they hated people who supported
the Herods and their political endeavors. The Pharisees hated
the Herodians. But after this particular Sabbath,
they decided that they hated Jesus even more. And they got together with their
political and religious adversaries. They didn't agree about almost
anything in politics or religion with these people. They couldn't
stand them. They got together with their biggest adversaries
in order to work together to try to come up with a way to
destroy Christ. So that little phrase that they
went out and held counsel with the Herodians to see how they
destroy him is really something. What can we learn from this passage?
First, let me point out that when we read passages like this,
where Jesus sharply contends with the Pharisees, We tend to
stereotype the Pharisees in a way that oftentimes is not helpful
or beneficial to us. We tend to look down our noses
at them and say, oh, I'm glad I'm not like them. Not realizing that Jesus criticized
the Pharisees for saying, I'm glad I'm not like him. When we
look down our noses at the Pharisees, we're acting like a Pharisee
and we don't even recognize it. We tend to judge them in a self-righteous
manner when the truth is that these men were genuine believers
in God who were concerned for the spiritual renewal of their
people. That's why they instituted all of the reforms that they
did. Not unlike us. We're true believers in God and
we're concerned about the spiritual state of God's people in our
world today, are we not? In addition, when we look at
the teachings of the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the several
other religious groups that were prominent in Jesus' day. Out
of all of the groups in Israel back then, both political and
religious groups, the teaching of the Pharisees was certainly
not perfect, but it was by far the closest to the truth that
was taught by Jesus. He had more in common with their
teaching than any other religious group in Israel. We tend to think of them as the
worst thing that he was always arguing and fighting with, which
he was always arguing and fighting with them, or vice versa. But
he was closer with them religiously than anyone else. He had more
in common with them, which is why his sharp interactions with
them were particularly painful. We read in our texts that he
looked at them, around at them, with anger because of the hardness
of heart. but also he grieved at the hardest
of heart. There was anger at the sin in
their heart, but he grieved for them with compassion. That's
what that word means. He knew their thoughts against
him, and he was angry with them, but
he loved them at the same time. It was painful for him to go
through these contentions with these people. That being said,
it was the Pharisees' zeal to proclaim the truth about God
which led many of them into the pit of pride and self-righteousness.
Their religious zeal that they had is something that we ought
to admire and strive for, but in a cautious way, because it
can easily lead to pride and self-righteousness. Consider
that these men were far more zealous to devote themselves
to living for God than just about any one of us sitting here today.
The things that they did for the sake of trying to devote
themselves and their lives to obeying God. They would put almost
all of us to shame. Their zeal for God puts us to
shame. Yet zeal for righteousness apart
from the truth of God's grace can easily lead the best of us
into the same pitfall of self-righteous pride. And we ought to be aware
of that. When we read stories about the
Pharisees, we ought to recognize that more often than not, We
ought to be looking in a mirror when we look at the Pharisees,
because they teach us many things about the sinfulness that's in
our own hearts. How often do we think to ourselves,
well, I'm not like them because I'm Reformed. I have the truth. I'm better than my Arminian brothers
and sisters, because I understand God's sovereignty and God's grace
better than they do. with this close to falling in
that pit, if we haven't fallen in it already, that the Pharisees
found themselves in, of pride and self-righteousness, which
when confronted with the truth of God's grace, leads very quickly
to us hating Jesus more than anyone else on the earth. Because
how dare he tell me I'm wrong? That's what happened with the
Pharisees here. That's something that we are susceptible to ourselves
if we're not careful. Secondly, we need to realize
the beauty of the Sabbath day, the beauty of the Sabbath. It
is a day given to us for our own good and well-being. It is a day given to us for our
enjoyment. It's a day given to us for us
to gather together to receive blessings from the Lord of the
Sabbath Himself through the ministry of the Word which he has ordained,
and also for us to give blessings from the Lord to other people
as well, and to share the love of the Lord with one another,
as Christ works through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It's a day of love. It's a day when the love of Christ
is communicated to us and through us. It's a day of God's love for
us, our love for God, and our love for one another. And lastly,
we need to be aware of over-legislating the Sabbath day as well. It's
not a bad thing, necessarily, to ask questions like, what am
I not allowed to do on the Lord's Day? Give me a list of things
I'm not allowed to do on the Lord's Day. But that question,
it's not a bad question. But that question can very easily
lead you into legalism, because you're not thinking about it
the right way. You're not looking at it as a day of enjoyment.
And rather than asking, what am I not allowed to do on the
Lord's Day, we should be asking, how can I receive the greatest
benefit possible on this Lord's Day? This day that God has designed
for me to receive blessings from Him. What can I do? How can I
conduct myself in order to maximize my edification on this day that
God has set aside for that purpose? Ask that question and pursue those things. Pursue
enjoying your fellowship and love with the Lord and with one
another. And you're on the right track
to avoiding legalistic tendencies, which we all have a tendency
to fall into. The Lord's Day is a blessing, not a burden.
It's a fair way. for us to play on and to enjoy
the beauty of it and to be blessed by. Let us receive and share
the bounty of the blessing of the Lord together on this day,
brothers and sisters. Let's bow together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we do come before
you on this day that you created for us, for our blessing, for
our benefit. We do pray, Father, that you
would indeed bless us Teach us your law. Help us to see our
sinfulness and need for a Savior. Show us our Savior. Help us to
see anew the marvelousness of your grace, which you have given
to us, that we might celebrate and rejoice in your goodness,
in your mercy, and in the fact that you come down and give gifts
to your people of blessing and comfort. Father, edify us this
day. Help us to enjoy this day. as
we worship you. We pray these things in Christ's
name. Amen.
The Lord Of The Sabbath Part 2
Series Mark
| Sermon ID | 10116041110 |
| Duration | 32:45 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Mark 2:23 |
| Language | English |
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