with me to the opening verses of Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6. As we meet each Lord's Day and we walk through the gospel of Luke week by week, It is if we come to a new apex as it regards pointing back to the Old Testament and seeing it fulfilled in the person of Christ. Here is God in flesh. Here is Christ dwelling amongst us. And as we look back and we see fulfillment in Christ, this week is no exception. Look at Luke 6, verses 1 through 5. Luke writes, now it happened that He was passing through some grain fields on a Sabbath. And His disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands and eating the grain. And some of the Pharisees said, why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And Jesus answered them saying, have you not even read what David did when he was hungry He and those who were with Him, how He entered the house of God and took and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for any to eat except the priest alone, and gave it to His companions. And He was saying to them, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Verses 1 through 5 there in Luke chapter 6 are telling us about Jesus and His disciples in another interaction here with the Pharisees regarding their eating as they're passing through a grain field on the Sabbath, and it is providing for Him the opportunity to proclaim that He has authority over the Sabbath. This is a text teaching us that Jesus claims authority over the Sabbath, and a text demonstrating His deity, His goodness, His love, His compassion, and His mercy. And we learn from this that indeed He has authority over the Sabbath. He has the power. He has the right. He is the one who makes decisions about the Sabbath. He is the one who interprets the Sabbath. And as that reaches back to the Old Testament and we see this fulfilled in Jesus, we see the Sabbath showing us His glory. Now this comes in three parts in Luke 6, 1 through 5, each setting the stage to help us see the glory of Christ in the Sabbath. It is the Sabbath showing us the glory of Christ, showing us His divinity, His power, His privilege, His goodness, His grace, and His love. But before we get to those three parts, I want you to see what's going on here in Luke 6 and having a bit of a context as we look at this text. And to do that, I think it'd be helpful for you to turn to Genesis chapter 2. It was almost a year ago we were in Genesis chapter 2, so some of this is going to sound familiar because you've been here within the last year. It's in Genesis chapter 2 where you find the origins of the Sabbath. You might think the origins of the Sabbath, Pastor, isn't that the commandments? But the origins are actually here in the account of creation. This is a text, if you remember from a year ago, that teaches us that true rest is only found in the Creator God. And as we walked through those days, we considered how the Creator God is Lord of the earth, Lord of the heaven and sky, Lord of the plants, of the lights, of the creatures of the sky and water. how He is Lord of the creatures of the land, Lord of the image bearers, and as we came to day seven, we recognize that He is Lord of the day of rest. Genesis chapter 2 verse 1 reads this, thus the heavens and the earth were completed. That's a key word. and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done and rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." In those verses, you'll remember And you can see clearly that it's telling us that this work of creation is complete. And being complete, He rested. That's the Hebrew word, Shabbat. It means to cease. It means to desist, to stop something. It says, He blessed the seventh day. How did He bless it? He sanctified it. He set it apart. He distinguished it from the rest of the days. And you can already see that in the fact that He rested. He's not doing what He was doing on all of those other days. So God Himself is showing us what a day of rest looks like at the culmination of creation week. God is not alone on this day, you'll remember. The seventh day is the first full day that man exists, the image-bearing creature, experiencing this day as his first full day when he is on the earth. This is a very special day. So this day, God is resting. And by His resting, He's not doing this because He's lazy. He's not doing this because He's grown tired. He's doing this because everything is complete. He is the one who has completed it. And He is establishing here a pattern for His image-bearing creatures to model their days after Him. Image-bearing creatures who here would know that God completes what He starts, that God is the one who provides everything for us, everything that we need, and that He governs all of our days so that we can actually take a day and rest knowing He is the one that is in control. So a day of rest, when you think about it, is as old as the account of creation. And it ripples out from there into all of human history to us being here this morning, and we'll see that in a moment. Turn to Exodus 1. When you come to Exodus 1, you're going to find a situation amongst the people of God where they appear to be very far from rest. Exodus 1 verse 11 through 14 that's essentially opening the book of Exodus for us tells us, appointed taskmasters over them, Israel, to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Ramses. But the more they afflicted them, Israel, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so they were in dread of the sons of Israel." The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously, and they made their lives bitter. How? With hard labor. in mortar and brick and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them. So, you come to the beginning of the very next book here, Exodus, and it describes Israel as a people who are frankly unable to rest because they are ruled by taskmasters. So, when God delivers them, From the Egyptians in Exodus 14, Moses responds by singing praise to the Lord who's high and exalted in Exodus 15. Before you get to Exodus 16, where the Lord who provided deliverance there in Exodus 14, water for them in Exodus 15, now provides manna and meat in Exodus 16. And then Exodus 16 verse 22, it establishes a pattern of Sabbath rest on the sixth day after the sixth day here among His people. A people who have been delivered out of the hands of their taskmasters and out of the hands of all of this labor in order to rest. He tells them He'll provide for them enough manna that they're able to gather there on the sixth day. They're to intentionally plan for the seventh day to rest. So He is far here from being a taskmaster. He is the God who delivers His people, who brings them to rest, whose deliverance is complete so that they can rest. And again, in Exodus 16, you have a pattern reflected among the image-bearing creatures who have trusted this God who has led them into the desert where they now rest, believing that God who delivered them from the enemies will continue here to provide for them because He is the Creator God, the Lord of heaven and earth, who completes what He starts. It's reflected in how they're to respond to Him. Look a few chapters over to Exodus 20. The people are standing at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Lord gives Moses the commandments for Israel so that His people might be a holy people. They might be a people whose lives give testimony to the glory of how great their God is, that they would conform to His holiness. Remember there in Exodus 20 verse 2, the commandments are introduced with those words, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of what? Slavery, you were under taskmasters there. He reminds him of their situation He delivered them from. They were slaves afflicted with hard labor, and these commandments that He's about to give them are meant to be good for them. They're meant to glorify God. They're meant to set them apart as the people of God. They are to express that the God of Israel is the Lord God of heaven, and so they come to them. Commandment 1 in verse 3, you shall have no other gods before Me. Commandment 2, you shall not make for yourself an idol. That's good that you don't do that. You would be submitting yourself to taskmasters once again, as we'll see. Commandment 3, you shall not take the name of your Lord God in vain, verse 7. You go to Commandment 5, we'll skip over 4. You go to Commandment 5, verse 12, honor your father and mother. Commandment 6, verse 13, you shall not murder. Commandment 7, verse 14, you shall not commit adultery. Commandment 8, verse 15, you shall not steal. Commandment 9, verse 16, you shall not lie, bear false witness. Commandment 10, verse 17, you shall not covet. These are good for you. This is how you should live. Tucked between 3 and 5 is the fourth. Exodus 20, look at verse 8, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, you shall not do any work, you or your sons or your daughters, your male or your female servants, or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you." Verse 11, would you note, for in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that's in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Here is the one commandment that comes to them whose origins are directly expressed as being rooted in the pattern that God established in creation. The Lord commands His people, rest. It is good for you to rest. You need rest. You might remember, as we looked at Genesis 2 last year, we noted how that is one way in which the Lord is different from the gods of the people, the pagan gods, one way that He is different from the idol worshipers. Among the pagan nations, they taught amongst themselves that the gods that they were worshiping were gods who they needed to be served constantly and endlessly. They needed the people to serve them. There was a never-ending task amongst the people of serving the needs of their gods. This is the case with every single type of idol. Your idols are needy. You can never satisfy your idols. They are incapable of completing whatever it is you think that they started. There is no rest in idolatry because you need to complete what your God is unable to complete Himself. And that's the case even today, whatever your idol might be. If your idol is your career, you will go to great lengths and never rest in order to satisfy your idol. The same with the video games, they will keep you up all night till you can satisfy your idol. The same with relationships, no rest. But not the God of Israel. His people are to be a people whose faith is evidenced by their resting and in their resting. The Sabbath was to demonstrate for a watching world that the God of Israel was the Lord of heaven and earth, that he is good, that he has delivered them, that he is providing for his people, that he will protect them, that he will defend them, that he has a plan for them, that he has accomplished and that he is accomplishing, and that he is sovereign over heaven and earth, everything, every moment, every day, every event. The Sabbath was to acknowledge That they, in turn, were finite creatures who could never deliver themselves, who would starve to death in the desert apart from Him providing for them. That they are creatures who could not secure the land that was promised to them by themselves, but they can rest because they are watched over, they are cared for, they are loved by a glorious and majestic God whose purposes will never be thwarted. Believing who God revealed Himself to be was to bring rest to them. If you didn't believe that this is who He is, how in the world are you going to be able to rest? Unbelief equates to no rest, no rest for the idol worshiper and no rest when it came to unbelieving Israel. And you see that in Numbers chapter 12 when the spies returned from the land and reported that certainly the land flows there with milk and honey, but the people who live there, oh, those people, they're strong, their cities are fortified. The spies that went into the land, we look like grasshoppers before these people. So they refused to obey the Lord, they refused to trust Him, they refused to believe Him, and they refused to enter the land. In acting in unbelief, they forfeited the promised rest. Psalm 95 revisits that moment. Psalm 95 verse 9, when your fathers tested me, they tried me though they had seen my work. You had seen all that Yahweh had brought to completion. For 40 years, I loved that generation and said, they are a people who err in their hearts and they do not know my ways." What's that? Not believing, no faith. Therefore, I swore in my anger truly, they shall not enter into my rest. Unbelief, not trusting God, is over and over again associated with an inability to rest. Now, among the commandments in Exodus 20, the Sabbath was not to take a backseat to any of the other nine. Profaning the Sabbath was an act of defiant unbelief, and it came with serious consequences. Exodus 31 verse 12 tells us that anyone who profanes the Sabbath shall be put to death. Exodus 35 verse 2, whoever does work shall be put to death. So as you're thinking about the Sabbath, you realize it comes with consequences of defying God's law. So in Numbers 15 verse 32, you find that there is a man who is actually stoned to death for working on the Sabbath. Why? Because his actions are viewed as a sinful act of defiance related to a specific situation that was forbidden as described in Exodus 35 verse 3, to not kindle a fire in your dwelling on the Sabbath. Now, if you were to go throughout the Pentateuch and you were to look for specifics related to Sabbath, all the restrictions that are given there, you're not actually going to find that many Repressive rules and regulations, but you will find this one and it's related to this man who chose to violate it in unbelief and his sin brought immediate consequences. Faith, rest. And the Sabbath that originated in Genesis 2 and then was commanded in Exodus 20 by the Lord God was to glorify Him through a nation that was acting in faith, resting in faith. It was to remember who He is, what He had done. That's Deuteronomy 5 verse 12 that connects remembering what God has done, delivering them with the command that's restated to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. So, it's no surprise then amongst this group of people you have a psalm like Psalm 92. You can turn there and look if you want. It is called a song for the Sabbath day. And it's a song that speaks of the Lord's lovingkindness and His faithfulness in verse 2. Singing for joy at the great works of the Lord, verses 4 and 5, of His being on high forever, verse 8, of His enemies perishing before Him in verse 9, and of Him being the rock of His people, a God in whom there is no unrighteousness, verse 15. This then is the God who is in control. That's what's being expressed here. So then certainly, if this is the God who is in control, all of His people can rest. He will defeat His enemies. He is in control of all things. The Psalm says, I like there in verse 6, that a stupid man doesn't understand this. That's the Sabbath. What happened to the Sabbath by the time you get to Luke 6? It's time passed. The Sabbath came to be less and less a means by which this group of people showed the nations around them the greatness of their God, and instead, it became a means by which they showed the people around them the sinfulness of their own hearts. The Jewish people who were often either exiled or occupied because of their own unfaithfulness attempted to maintain their national identity primarily in two ways. You were to be circumcised if you were a male, and you were to keep the Sabbath. Sabbath keeping became this visible sign on a weekly basis from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, identifying you as a Jewish person. So to keep Jews then from breaking the Sabbath, they added extra biblical commands and they added these traditions that they created to just add an extra layer in order to protect the Sabbath so that you would not break the Sabbath and that you would keep it holy. Within some of those traditions, you've heard some of this before, but it was forbidden to even carry a child on the Sabbath or to help livestock that might be giving birth that needed help if that happened on the Sabbath. Surprisingly, perhaps to you, the tradition among the Pharisees and the rabbis that was captured in the Mishnah was actually a less rigorous tradition than some of the other traditions that existed at the time. It's summarized in the Shabbat. as general acts of labor prohibited on the Sabbath called the 40 less one." That's just a nice way of saying 39, right? What was prohibited? Well, here's a few. Sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting produce from crops, so looking and going, that's a better apple than this apple. Grinding produce, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing it, beading it, dyeing it, weaving it. It said you couldn't make two loops. You couldn't loop two ropes together or threads together or weave two threads together. All you quilting folks, you've got problems. You couldn't separate two threads. You couldn't tie things together, couldn't untie things. You couldn't write more than one letter. You couldn't write a letter to me and go, wow, I really messed that up. I'm going to try again. Because if you tore that up and you wrote it again, you wrote two letters. That would constitute work. On and on it went. You couldn't travel more than 1,999 paces because anything more than that would constitute a journey. Do you see what's going on with that? In effect, they had constituted a system through tradition that led to no rest. You're constantly keeping an account of what you're doing. Friend, this is what unbelief always does. So by the time Jesus and His disciples are passing through that grain field there in Luke 6 that we read a moment ago, the Sabbath has been reconstituted as a day amongst the people of Israel. It wasn't a day that cultivated humility by reminding creatures that we are dependent upon a holy God, but it was a day that provided for an expression of pride. I keep the Sabbath better than you keep the Sabbath. It didn't express that God was gracious, but that God was demanding. It didn't reflect that the Lord had delivered them as a people, but that perhaps He had imprisoned them for one day a week. It didn't demonstrate the glory of God, but it demonstrated the attempts of men to prove themselves as righteous. That's the background for Luke 6. That's the background for the Sabbath to show us the glory of Christ. Part one, verse one, the setting. The setting. The setting here provides the opportunity for Jesus to claim his authority over the Sabbath. The setting provides the opportunity for Jesus to show us his glory as it relates to the Sabbath. Verse one, now it happened that he was passing through some grain fields on a Sabbath, and his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands and eating the grain. That these men are walking through this field, Picking what is probably wheat or barley and eating it, this is not the problem. Leviticus 23 verse 22 said, when you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corner of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest. You are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 23 verse 25 said, when you pluck your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle. It was a very gracious way for God to provide for the poor and the needy. One would expect that if you were going to walk out amongst the fields, that you would find people walking through the corners of the field, taking grain that had been left behind and eating it. Why were His disciples doing this? Well, the very profound spiritual reason that they're doing this is because they were hungry. Matthew 12, 1 says, they did it because they're hungry. Now, you couldn't simply eat what you picked. To eat it, you had to rub it in your hands to separate the grain from the husk and the outer shell. Only then could you consume it. The problem is not so much what they're doing, but when they're doing it. It's on the Sabbath. And you know there are prohibitions on the Sabbath. 40 less one. So the setting then provides the backdrop for the objection. The second part that sets the stage to show us the glory of Christ is number two, the objection. The objection, verse 2. The Pharisees are expressing here their understanding and their opinion about the Sabbath in the form of an objection against Jesus' disciples. When they say this, I want you to hear, listen to their authority that they have determined to be and to rule over the Sabbath, verse 2. But some of the Pharisees said, why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? You can do what you're doing, that's fine, but not on the Sabbath. What are they doing that the Pharisees were determined to be unlawful? Remember the 40 last one. They are reaping, threshing, perhaps winnowing in a sense, preparing food with their hands on what might just be classified as a journey. The self-appointed guardians of the Sabbath are policing the day by scrutinizing the actions of the disciples of Jesus. This is what they did. This is how they saw themselves. They are the authority. Is this technically a Torah violation, what they see? It would really be hard to argue that it was, but most certainly it's a violation of their regulations and their tradition. You can't do this because it constitutes work, and work is prohibited on the Sabbath. And while we don't have an Old Testament Scripture, we have wisely crafted traditions to keep you from working and to force you to rest and protect you from violating God's law. And here you are in a grain field on the Sabbath, you are unprepared, you are hungry, you should have planned for all this, and now you're working to satisfy your hunger. It is awfully easy for us to look at them and to critique these guardians of the Sabbath and to fail to identify some of these same tendencies within each one of us. Some of us who have become guardians of the Lord's Day and all sorts of things about the Christian life. They had a view on the Sabbath that's detached from Scripture, and they oppose their judgments and opinions upon others, viewing themselves as the authorities on the Sabbath. And yet, what was in them can creep into us. I think it's helpfully summarized by something that Ryle says. He said, what excessive importance hypocrites attach to trifles. What excessive importance hypocrites attach to trifles. What importance we can place upon what Scripture is silent about and has not placed importance upon. If you were to be publicly identified as a Jew during this time, you had to keep the Sabbath, and it was the Pharisees who judged what was best practices to keep the Sabbath. You could say the same heart shows up amongst us, that if you were a Christian in our day, you must demonstrate your Christianity based off something we have judged and formed an opinion on that you must demonstrate that Christianity as. You must homeschool your children. You must dine weekly with others as part of your rhythm. You must lead family worship without missing a single night where you preach passionate, expositional, doctrinally rich sermons. You must successfully catechize your children. You must sound like the Valley of Vision when you pray. You must only read Scripture from a literal translation. You must only sing the Psalms. That's how you know that you're a mature Christian. Sabbath keeping as the religious leaders prescribed it to be kept. is what people thought it meant to be a God-fearing Jew. What do you think it means for someone to be a spiritually mature Christian? Are you making what you think binding upon other Christians? The reason I'm bringing it up is not to condemn you but so that you would realize that you might be making secondary issues primary and placing an expectation on others that is actually an excessive burden. And if that's happening, it's probably because you're placing an unbiblical burden upon yourself, and upon your family, and upon the friends that you have around you, and upon people perhaps in your church. Brothers and sisters, in what ways do you or are you tempted to place excessive importance on what you think is best when Scripture is silent? To attach excessive importance to trifles, Israel says. Ryle says, he goes on, it's a bad symptom of any man's state of soul when he begins to put the secondary things in religion in the first place and the first things in second, or the things ordained by man above the things ordained by God. Let us beware of falling into this state of mind. There is something sadly wrong in our spiritual condition when the only thing we look at in others is their outward Christianity, and the principal question we ask, whether they worship in our communion and use our ceremonial and serve God in our way. That describes here the basis for the Pharisees' objection to what they see Jesus and His disciples doing. So their objection here provides the basis for Jesus' authority. That brings us to part three that shows us the glory of Christ in the Sabbath. Number three, verse three and five, the authority. Jesus responds to their objection here and teaches them about the Sabbath and teaches them about men from Scripture. He gives us a sense of His authority within this first response here. It comes in two parts. He gives us a sense of His authority here over the Sabbath by first instructing the guardians of the Sabbath. Look in verse 3, and Jesus answering them said to them, have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him? how he entered into the house of God, took and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for any to eat, except the priest alone, and gave it to his companions." Those words, have you not even read? That is a rebuke for those who prided themselves on having read a whole lot, having read the Old Testament. It's a rebuke that's coming here not in the form of a parable or a metaphor or a simile or a wonderfully crafted story, but as a rebuke that's coming directly from the Old Testament in one of its most revered figures. Have you not read? Who's the person that you should know about that it seems like you don't know much about? What David did. Here is Israel's most revered king, most honored king, most respected king. Here is the man who is the man after God's own heart, 1 Samuel 13, 14, presented to them as an example. Have you not read what the man after God's own heart did? Don't you know this? Don't you know what David did when he and those who were hungry were hungry on a Sabbath? He is reminding them of 1 Samuel 21 verses 1 through 7. David is on the run from Saul who had told Jonathan, David must surely die. They're in 1 Samuel 20 verse 31. Jonathan, you'll remember, conveyed that message to David who was hiding in the field. And he's been in that field a while, and immediately David is on the run for his life. There's no time for food. There's no time for supplies. David shows up at the tabernacle and he's hungry. And he knows that there is bread at the tabernacle because he knows Leviticus 34 verse 5 and Exodus 25 verse 30 prescribe that there is consecrated bread to be placed before the presence of the Lord once a week. And the bread was to be placed there every Sabbath, and it was to only be eaten by the priests per the law. And here is David and his companions showing up at this place, and they are hungry. It would seem that he showed up at the tabernacle on the Sabbath because 1 Samuel 21, 6 suggests that the bread had just been placed there, which is what they did on the Sabbath. By all standards, this is a violation of the law on multiple levels. And Jesus recognizes that here when He says, this is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priest alone. And yet, the bread was given to David and his men. Jesus is teaching the guardians of the Sabbath about the Sabbath. He's responding to them here from 1 Samuel 21 because here's an example of the needs of men taking precedence over ceremonial law. He is arguing here from a more difficult case of violating the law. How do you reconcile what David is doing here? This is difficult. He's arguing from a more difficult case to a lesser case in the charges that are being directed at his men by the Pharisees. David's situation, in a sense, is much more difficult to resolve. How could this, what David is doing here, possibly be acceptable? David's actions can only be acceptable if the law was not designed to prevent a person from meeting their own needs and leaving them to starve on a Sabbath. His actions can only be acceptable if the law is meant to serve for the good of the people and to show and demonstrate the glory of God. Here is the man after God's own heart. Here is the man that God has promised would be king, and he is hungry, and there is bread there in the tabernacle on the Sabbath. You wonder, did God drop the ball here? Did He forget that David's out there on the run? Is David having to fend for himself? In God's providence, He recorded this account in 1 Samuel 21 of the future king who is hungry, who is on the run, and who comes here to the tabernacle and finds bread. What would the right response to the starving man be? Would it be to just let him continue to starve? Is that God's will? Would it be to let him grow weak so that Saul would capture him? Or has the God who established the Sabbath provided for His people and demonstrated His goodness to them here, His compassion for His people? Is that more important than biblical ritual and ceremony is mercy? Does he want to see them suffer? Is he concerned about David's need? Is he concerned about the needs of the people like Jesus' disciples who are hungry? In Matthew's account, Jesus replies with an added word here, but if you had known what this means, I desire compassion and not sacrifice, you would have not condemned the innocent. In Mark, he adds, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Presenting this story then to the Pharisees in response to their objection is really putting them in a quandary. If you're going to condemn me and my disciples, then you really also need to be condemning David. I bet you're not going to condemn David. Was it God's plan to have people suffer on the Sabbath? Verse 3 and 4 here, Jesus proclaims, and He is soon going to demonstrate for us next week that the needs of the people take precedence over tradition and ceremony and ritual. He is teaching the Pharisees that they have lost the God-exalting purpose of the Sabbath that was always intended to be for the good of man, just as all the other commandments were intended to be for the good of man. It's good that we don't murder. It's good that we don't lie. It's good that you rest. But what Jesus proclaims this day is not only about understanding the Sabbath itself as He's directing and instructing the Pharisees, but also His relationship to the Sabbath. Look at verse 5. Jesus is giving us a sense of His authority here. Jesus proclaims His authority over the Sabbath. And He was saying to them, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He is proclaiming to be the Lord of the day that we looked at in Genesis 2, in Exodus 20, in Exodus 16, in Psalm 92. He is determining to be Lord of the day that they determined to be critical to identifying themselves as a Jewish person. Imagine how frustrating this is to them. He is proclaiming that he has authority over this day, that he is the one who determines what's appropriate for this day, and he has all of the rights, he has all of the privilege, he has all of the power The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. This is not the first time he's claimed that title. You'll remember it showed up in Luke 5, verse 24, when he proclaimed and then demonstrated his authority to forgive the sins of the paralytic that was brought to him. So he proclaimed his authority, he demonstrated his authority, he's about to do that again. This is a messianic title, Son of Man, from Daniel 7, expressing who he is. He is the Son of God in flesh. along with expressing here the corresponding authority that He possesses directly relating to the Sabbath. It is the Son of Man who will now determine what is appropriate for this divine institution that's rooted in Genesis 2 and Exodus 20. Verse 5 here is a very Christological statement. Jesus is proclaiming the prerogative of God. He has the right. He has the privilege that is exclusive to God over this day that God instituted at the very beginning of creation and handed down in the form of the commandment in Exodus 20. He cannot be Lord of the Sabbath unless He is God. He cannot possess true authority over this divine institution unless He is truly divine, and He is divine. And now, if you want to understand the Sabbath, it's not going to be looking to the Pharisees, it's not going to be looking to the rabbis, it's not going to be looking to the Mishnah, it's not going to be by looking to all of the prohibitions that they have handed down, but it is going to be looking upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of Man, who is the Lord of the Sabbath. He has the authority to interpret the Sabbath, and he will exercise that authority over the Sabbath. As He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, the way in which He fulfills the Sabbath is going to exceed what many of them could have possibly imagined. The fullness of the Sabbath rest will be realized in the Lord of the Sabbath when He dies for His people, when He is buried and laid in the tomb throughout the Sabbath day, and then when He is raised, and His authority over the Sabbath will be demonstrated through His resurrection, and it will have a massive impact on the Sabbath. So much so that when the New Testament church starts to gather, it's not on the last day of the week, but on the first day of the week. It's not on the day in which the Lord lay in the tomb, but on the day in which He was resurrected. It's the day of the week when they're gathered to break bread. They're in Acts chapter 20 verse 7. It's the first day of the week where they gathered the collection there in 1 Corinthians 16. It's the Lord's day when John has his vision in Revelation chapter 1 verse 10. He is Lord of the Sabbath. He has authority to do this. What are the ripple effects of Him being the Lord of the Sabbath and Him instituting the Lord's Day? Well, look to your left and look to your right. What is today? Where are we at? You Christian are gathered this Sunday morning, this Lord's Day, because Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath. And when the Sabbath was restated there in Deuteronomy 5 verse 12, you'll remember what I told you a moment ago, it came with a call to remember, that the people would remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out. Christian, each and every Lord's Day ought to come with a call to remember, to remember that you were a slave to your sin, but the Lord of the Sabbath died to set you free. You are free. He delivered you so that you can rest like you were never able to rest before. You are now the people who have entered His rest, according to Hebrews 4 verse 1. He has completed the work of redemption that He started, and we enter into His rest, resting from all of our works, Hebrews 4 verse 10. The Lord of the Sabbath has called you as a Christian to follow Him, and He has called you with a promise saying, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He has promised this rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11 verse 28. For the Christian, the Lord's Day is the best day. Unless you're sick and in the hospital, why in the world would you be watching on the live stream right now, sitting at home in your pajamas, when you could be here amongst the Lord's people on the Lord's Day, celebrating and rejoicing all that the Lord has done, and looking amongst the people, and seeing His work of salvation having taken place in your life, and seeing your growth and sanctification, all of us rejoicing together. This is the best day of the week because we gather to rest in the goodness of God, to rest in the grace of God, to rest in the sovereignty of God, and to remind ourselves of these good things. You gather with others who have entered the rest. You praise God with others about this rest. You remember the gospel that points to this rest. There is an eagerness to come. There is an eagerness to worship, to come in faith. Reflecting the glory of God, the gospel itself, and in faith then you are able to what? Rest, because unbelief won't allow you to rest. If Israel is to rest to the glory of God, we are to rest and worship on the Lord's day to the glory of Christ our Savior who has made it possible for us to rest. The Sabbath reminded Israel there is a God who is Lord of heaven and earth. It reminded Israel we are finite creatures, reminded them He is protected, He is provided for them, reminded them He is in control. We can affirm all of those things and add this, He has provided rest for our souls through His Son, a rest that no man could achieve on his own. So as faith rests in the sovereignty and goodness of God, faith rests in the Son of Man who is the Lord of the Sabbath who provides salvation for our souls. Everything that you read in Scripture in the Old Testament related to the Sabbath finds its apex in the Lord Jesus Christ who proclaimed He is Lord of the Sabbath. He brings rest to His people. Father, thank you for Creating a day. Creating a day in which people are to rest. Creating a day in which your son would be glorified. It would show us his power, his love, his compassion for people. Father, I pray that if there are those who are lost among us who would never have identified as an idol worshiper, but who are in fact idol worshipers because they worship their career and they worship people, they worship sports, they worship all sorts of things. I pray that they would see that it has not brought them rest. Pray that they would find hope this morning in the Lord of the Sabbath, who provides rest for his people. Pray that all of us as Christians, as we gather this morning, would find it a joy to gather on the Lord's Day, to remember all that we have in Christ, to respond to that by our gathering. And that as His people, we would glorify Christ, expressing in our lives we trust Him as having completed everything necessary to save us. That our lives would reflect that He is a good and gracious Savior. He's been kind and He's been merciful. That we do not have to work for our salvation. Anything that comes out of us is a demonstration of His work in us. Father, I pray that you would help us to rest to the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.