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.