Lord of The Sabbath | Matthew 12:1-8

Scripture

• Matthew 12:1–8

About this sermon

Introduction: Jesus offers rest to the weary laborer — to the one who is under a heavy burden. It is the rest of forgiveness, but it is also the rest of liberation from every false religious standard. People are not just weary in their sin; they are wearied by the false religious attempts to answer for sin. He speaks to a people working to the point of exhaustion. “weary” LSB “labor” ESV κοπιάω (kopiao) Meaning: to grow weary, toil “to work to the point of exhaustion” How many people, throughout the ages, have been delivered by Christ from false religion that wore them out in their attempts to earn salvation? The Jewish spiritual leaders, at the time of Christ, represented that kind of oppressive religion. John called them a brood of vipers. ESV Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Jesus called them a brood of vipers. ESV Matthew 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons." ESV Matthew 12:34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. ESV Matthew 23:29 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? That brood of vipers represented THE SERPENT OF OLD — their father. They represented a demonic distortion of true religion. ESV Matthew 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. The result is that people were oppressed. ESV Matthew 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. The truth of God’s Word had been distorted. What was meant to be observed in the power of faith and love, had become an oppressive, works righteousness, system. What was meant to be a matter of true worship, came to be distorted into the hard labor of human traditions. When truth is mixed with error, it is no longer the truth. Right after Jesus gives an invitation that represented liberation, we are told of an encounter that GIVE US INSIGHT INTO TWO VERY IMPORTANT TRUTHS. Truth about the religious leaders of the Jews. Truth about Jesus Himself. THE TEACHERS OF THE LAW DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE LAW, NOR DO THEY RIGHTLY REPRESENT THE APPLICATION OF THE LAW. JESUS IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW AND THE LORD OVER EVERYTHING THE LAW ADDRESSES. These lessons come to us following the actions of the disciples of Jesus in a grain field on a Sabbath day. And through this encounter we are taught that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. • THE ACTION THAT OFFENDED (vs.1) Around the same time that Jesus gave His invitation to the weary, He was making way through the grainfields on the Sabbath with His men. Those men become hungry. The disciples take heads of grain from the fields they are passing through and turn those heads of grain into handfuls of snack food. Somehow (and we are not told how), the Pharisees see this. It is not hard to imagine how they saw it. Jesus certainly had their attention. His disciples and He would have been on their radar. No doubt, having already been bothered by Him, and already increasingly opposing Him, they are LOOKING for what they can charge Him with that would discredit Him (see verse 10). Regardless of how they saw him, they confront him. • THE ACCUSATION THAT FOLLOWED (vs.2) THEY CHARGE THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS WITH SABBATH VIOLATION. Now, as you know, the Sabbath was a day (the 7th day), set aside by God as a day of rest. It commemorated what God did when He created the world in 6 days and ceased His activity on the 7th. God did this for the sake of mankind. He did this for the sake of man’s rest. God did this as a matter for man’s faith, not only commemorating God as Creator, but also remembering God as supplier. God promised to supply for what Israel needed in 6 days if the 7th day was honored. The Sabbath law required Israel not to work on the Sabbath

Topics

• Christian Living