Our scripture again is taken from Mark chapter 2 verses 27 and 28. Then 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. May God richly bless both the reading and the hearing of his holy word. Now the incident from which our text is taken derives from a very familiar scene in the life and the earthly ministry of Jesus as he encounters the Pharisees on a number of occasions. And basically what the Pharisees are doing is what the Pharisees do which is as it relates to Jesus, they were always attempting to discredit him. And they were trying to discredit him usually by trying to charge either himself or his disciples as somehow violating the law of God. It's interesting that if you fast forward in the age of the church we see that there are still many people. Every time the message of the gospel goes forth there's always going to be some finger pointers and waggers trying to prove that our embrace of the gospel somehow undermines the law of God. And it's always no matter what you say if they will always make you want to stand up for something they think you said. And so in this case Jesus disciples are the ones that that they tried to use, that the Pharisees tried to use to discredit him. And the way that the issue here in particular is the law concerning the Sabbath. That's what's at issue. So if we back up a few verses in verse 23 Jesus and his disciples are going through a field. And as they pass through the field of the grain fields on the Sabbath as they're passing through Mark says that the disciples began to pluck heads of grain, heads of grain. No doubt indicating that they were hungry. So they weren't doing it for sport. They were doing it because they were hungry. And they took grains of a heads of grain to eat. In verse 24 the Pharisees don't go to the disciples and that's kind of that kind of gives you an indication of what's going on because as Jesus teaches through the way love works is that if you see a brother or sister overtaken and sin you go to that brother and you go to that sister and you you bring the issue up before them. But in this case they don't go to the disciples. They don't see them in error and try to teach them a more excellent way. They go with pointed fingers to Jesus. Looking there they're always and by the way if you look if you're looking to for something to accuse someone on it doesn't take long. It does not take long. It doesn't matter who it is. It does not take long. If that's what you're looking for. Really what we see is a wonderful example of something we mentioned a few months ago in preaching from Matthew's Gospel, the dangers or the characteristics of the log in eye disease. And so these Pharisees they are able to glimpse something wrong with Jesus' disciples because they have eaten grain on the Sabbath. So right there not following Jesus they found what they were looking for. They find his disciples that fought so therefore they go to Jesus and they accuse his disciples of violating the Sabbath. Now they do so with one or two infractions in view. On the one hand it could be that according to what they have in mind is that according to Exodus chapter 34 verse 21 it says that plowing or reaping on the Sabbath is prohibited. So that could have been the thing that they were charging Jesus' disciples with because in the same way that when Jesus healed a man who was blind on the Sabbath and he spit on the ground and the dirt became mud they then accused him of working and because he converted dirt into mud. So it could be that they are looking at the disciples who are eating and they are suggesting that they are reaping on the harvest or on the Sabbath and therefore they are in violation of the Sabbath law. I hold in mind that in Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 25 plucking the head of grain from a neighbor's field is actually permitted. So here's the possibility of what else they were trying to do because this plucking the grain from a neighbor's field takes place on the Sabbath maybe they are also trying to make the case that the disciples are stealing. If it were any other day it wouldn't be stealing but because it's on the Sabbath and the owners of the grain field are not allowed to reap on the Sabbath if someone else reeks then they are stealing. In either case they are trying to make the case that Jesus's disciples are not keeping the Sabbath and so they are implying that they are basically stealing and Jesus responds to them. He is gracious in that he responds to them and he responds to them by calling attention to 1 Samuel chapter 21 verses 1 through 6. It's good to know God's Word right it's good to know and Jesus we know he was God in the flesh but he was grounded in the Word and he is our representative and he shows how we ought to be able to reason from God's Word to various situations. Well he cites the passage in 1 Samuel 21 verses 1 through 6 and in that incident David went into the house of God during a famine and he was with all of his men and during this famine he commanded the high priest to give the consecrated bread a show bread for he and his men to eat and here's what I find interesting about Jesus using this as the point of reference. The interesting thing here is that the incident in 1 Samuel this incident concerning David and his men does not occur on the Sabbath. So Jesus' defense of his disciples actions is not to go back to any law concerning the Sabbath but he illustrates the legitimacy of their actions based on something that doesn't take place on the Sabbath. I think he references this incident to demonstrate to the Pharisees that with all of the details that they give to to keeping the letter of the law is I think he cites the incident with David to show that they do not understand the spirit of the law and it's almost as if he would tell them now what spirit what what part of the spirit of the Sabbath law is being violated by God's servants feeding themselves. That's that's almost what he's doing but in any event he uses this to to illustrate and really almost kind of kind of shut the mouths of the Pharisees and basically shows them that the conception of the Sabbath that their conception of the Sabbath is a faulty one that they have a faulty view of the Sabbath. Now you ask them in fact if you were to follow them you would see them very studious, very dutiful in every aspect of the letter of the law concerning the Sabbath. They were probably in sacred assembly no one was doing any work no servants were working and so that's what they think gives them the right to now find the fault in any of any other image bearers efforts to keep the Sabbath. Jesus demonstrates to them that they really don't understand the Sabbath. Brothers and sisters let me just say something about the outward form of worship and of loving God. Sometimes people will look at what we do and say oh boy they really love the Lord. They are here they're there they always have their Bible open. They always prayed before they eat in public and they always pray in the morning before they leave. They really love the Lord but I often think of Martin Luther when before he was converted into Protestantism before he challenged the Catholic teaching of the Catholic Church and he was a he was a monk and as a monk he was just I mean he was dutiful doing everything that was required of him in his monastic order and people would look at him and say oh boy brother Martin really loves the Lord he would be in for confessions for hours upon hours in fact his confessor were telling Martin go go just go you okay you know the Lord loves you but and then they would say brother Martin you must really love the Lord and he said love him no I don't love him I really hate him but the reason he was so devoted to all of those duties is because he felt that if he didn't do it somehow God would strike him dead. Brothers and sisters we can have an outward form of religion and we can have all of our secondary reasons for doing what we do as well as what we don't do and really have no understanding of what we're doing or why we are doing it yeah I think of the words of Jesus again at another time when he's confronting the Pharisees and he says you search the scriptures because they were always pointing the scriptures this that and the other is you don't even know the scriptures you search the scriptures because you think they confirm you in eternal life but I'm telling you that the very scriptures that you are searching condemn you so here we see again these strict sabotarians they have an outward understanding of the Sabbath but their view of the Sabbath is faulty therefore it is superstitious now Jesus in responding to them makes three statements about the Sabbath on the one first off he says that the Sabbath was made for man secondly he says that man was not made for the Sabbath that's not saying the same thing he's making a different point by rearranging the wording or inserting another a single word and then thirdly he says that he himself is the lord of the Sabbath so let's begin with the first statement that the Sabbath was made for man that is a powerful statement the Sabbath was made for man now understand that when Moses introduces the Sabbath in Genesis chapter 2 verse 3 he says that God blessed the seventh day and he made it holy and although he says in verse 2 that he rested from his work that does not mean that God was tired it simply means that he ceased from his work and then later in Exodus when when Moses reiterates aspects of the 10 commandments he reminds the children of Israel that on the seventh day God rested and I love this he refreshed himself now what's interesting is that the word that's translated refreshed in Exodus 38 simply means to breathe and so in other words God breathes we would say he exhales well the breath of God is the spirit of God and so therefore somehow in a kind of connect because it really what takes place in creation is that God is the creator through him his son and so God is not tired from creating God ceases from creating and then he breathes his spirit on the seventh day and I I would argue that the breathing that Moses references in Exodus is is really God sanctifying the day and so in light of what David is or what what Jesus is saying here God sanctified the day now hold in mind also that man is created on the sixth day now everything else that God has given to man for his refreshment and for his purpose of the for which God created him which is to to reflect God's glory and to represent him in the earth and to enjoy him and glorify him forever that is God's purpose for man so in order for him to carry out the things that man needed to do God gave him a mind by which he could think he gave him the use of language by which he could reflect and represent the authority of God he gave him an emotion by which he could feel he could have a compassion or he could have loved for God and for his fellow image bearers God gave him a body that was suited for the work that he needed to do God even gave him a companion that would help him carry out the creation mandate God gave him everything that he needed in order for him to be the image bearer that he was supposed to be and Jesus adds this caveat on top of everything else that God gave him trees that he could eat from animals that he was to have dominion over God gave him a day brothers and sisters hold in mind that the Sabbath is not a redemption ordinance it's a creation ordinance and so when Jesus says that the Sabbath was created for man it has to be understood as being as necessary for him to carry out the will of God and it's necessary for him to be who he is supposed to be as everything else that God had given him Sabbath was created for man God sanctifies the Sabbath for the benefit of his image bearers he set it apart and I want to make this observation that man is created on the sixth day and guess what he's supposed to do on the seventh day rest so that on the first day he could go to work now we usually work we rest after we work God tells Adam you need to rest before he works and so before he sets him to do the things that he's supposed to do he has everything that is necessary in fact the writer of Ecclesiastes says that God has created man upright but he has sought out many devices everything that was necessary for him to represent God he had a will he could choose he had he had freedom of action freedom of body he was everything that he needed and on top of everything that God created him to be God gave him the gift of a day and that day is supposed to be as necessary for his existence as the water that he drinks the food that he eats the words that he speaks the mind that he has the the Sabbath says Jesus was created for man and here's what seems to be the problem with the Pharisees they have that thing twisted you see there's no threats in the Sabbath it was created for man in his upright position it was created for man even in his purity even before the fall the creation of the Sabbath was given for the good and benefit of man I would argue that at least it's good for at least three things it's good for man because it allows him to behold the work of God sometimes we get too busy yeah one of the things that I enjoy growing up when my parents we was it was three of us were first nine or 11 years of my life and then my younger sister was born but when we were much younger my parents when it was time to go on vacation we didn't get airplane tickets we got in the car we got in the car and we drove we would drive from California to Arkansas and the but the one of the things and I guess that's one of the reason I still love driving across country one of the things that that it allowed us to do you see we lived in the city and we didn't have cows but we drive through the country we see the country here the country's eyes we see cows grazing we see sheep we see all sorts of things as we drive through Arizona and didn't we drive through New Mexico and drive through Texas and we drive through all of these states we got a chance to actually see now I can say as an adult the Lord has blessed us and through ministry to travel all of the world but the thing is every place looks the same because we're on a plane we're on a plane we don't really get a chance to pull in and see anything we we're too big it's too high up now I do love flying over the continent of Africa it's a wonderful thing to see in the daytime to look down on the Sahara and so forth but it's still not the same thing is driving through the desert you see God gives us the Sabbath because you see on on on on Monday Adam is going to be at it he's going to be he will see the trees from a different perspective he will see the trees is that what he needs to maintain he will see the animals from a different perspective but God gives him a gift that before he touches anything before he goes out and speaks to anything he just has the privilege of beholding his God he has the the advantage of looking out on the fields that have not been tarnished by smog the skies the clouds the stars David says that the heavens declared the glory of God and the firmament show it for his handiwork that's after the fall how much more splendid is it before the fall creation God created the Sabbath so that man could behold what it was that he was a part of so that he could behold the glory of God and perhaps he could have a different view of it instead of saying oh boy is money I gotta go back to work I get to I get to encounter I get to engage with all that God has given so the creation of the Sabbath is for the good of man because it enables to behold the work of God before he engages in work but secondly the Sabbath is good for man because it allows man to commune with God in a special way just as Lord I wonder if it I guess it wasn't on the Sabbath when when the Lord brought the animals to Adam and allowed him to name them perhaps it came after the creation of the Sabbath and so after Adam has beheld God's glory in the created order now he gets to reflect God's authority by giving names to what God has given him to do but he does get a chance to commune with God you see when we read in Genesis 3 after the fall and it says they heard the voice of the Lord in the garden a Meredith Klein great Old Testament scholar that used to teach at Westminster in California wrote a book entitled or actually it's a syllabus of lessons entitled Kingdom Prologue and he makes the point that that the the garden was sort of a sanctuary Adam had access to the whole created order but it was in the garden that he would meet with God and so the reason he hears the voice of God in the garden is because that was the meeting place and so God had God gave Adam even though God is the omnipresent God who was everywhere at all times and there is no place that you can escape his presence God is with his people and since there is no fall at this point there is no sin there is no separation they are in the presence of God at all times but the God who was always present is present in a particular way when man is doing nothing but contemplating him so in that contemplation there seems to be communion with creator and creature there seems to be a communion between God and man and I would argue this that also it seems to be that depending on again when Eve is created it also gives an opportunity for horizontal communion and horizontal fellowship where Eve and Adam could together contemplate the splendors of creation and the joy of being created in the image of God yeah the creation or the Sabbath was created for man it wasn't created to frighten him it was created to enhance him and whatever man was intended to be the creation of the Sabbath was a supplement to his creation in other words it was advantageous to him God blesses him by giving him the Sabbath there's I was listening earlier just happened just so happens it was a discussion a podcast where this Jewish writer Judith shoe of this I think is her name and she was talking about how she was always consumed with work and she lives in New York she she's a writer and and she would always every day she was worked consumed with work and when they when she would get off from work and they would go and have after you know after work get together with friends they were talking about work over the weekend they were talking about work and she found out that she was just consumed with work and so she had a friend from college who was a Christian a Lutheran lady and she says you know I think I need I maybe I need to go to church and so her Lutheran friend said well you are Jewish you might not enjoy church here's what you might want to do is look for a Shabbat which is a Sabbath community and so she found and she told her about one and and she went to this the Sabbath this the Shabbat community and she said the first time that she went and everything that was going on and the worship and the stillness she said she just broke down in tears and it's through the discovery of the Sabbath that she actually became a practitioner of her religion I think about that and I thought about as I was listening I said wow that's exactly what we're talking about Jesus when Jesus says the Sabbath was created for man the implication is that there is something missing when man does not observe the Sabbath there's something missing about him and the the the the Pharisees have it twisted which brings us to the second thing that he he points out not only does he say that the Sabbath was created for man negatively he says this man was not made for the Sabbath and this is where perhaps the the the Pharisees this is where they twisted it and this is where perhaps their superstition comes in because they look at it as a rule and of course they should it is it is issued as a law it is given before the ten commandments it is given before the fall but when the Lord gives the ten commandments he includes a statement on the Sabbath and we see later in Israel's history at various points we see them the the prophets that the Lord sends them condemning them for among other things and number of issues that they had by of places where they violated the law of God but one of the things that remains constant with them is that they're they violated the Sabbath the Lord's day was no longer sacred for them and so therefore the the the Pharisees take this the wrong way they think therefore the purpose of the Sabbath is that that somehow man was created for this but Jesus says this was created for man and this it's a huge difference in other words man was not made for the Sabbath man was made to glorify God and the Sabbath is a means by which we are able to carry out the responsibility of glorifying God so if we look at all of the the rules that are attached to it and by the way Judas Judas Schulovitz eventually wrote a book she entitled the book the Sabbath world as she caused it the subtitle is glimpses of a different order of time and what she does is she just kind of researches historically what we have called the blue laws the blue laws in various parts of the country where on where things and businesses were shut down on Sunday and then eventually in 19 let it was 1961 this went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court held some aspect of the blue laws and Warren Berger who was one of the deciding justices made this observation that it is somehow good for man for his disposition when he ceases activity on the one day out of the week the point is that even in a secular sense it's demonstrated that the Sabbath is good for man even if we don't have a right understanding of it it is good for man to cease from his activities there's another in fact he mentions that I think in the book also where they talk about a technology Sabbath and the technology Sabbath is when people consciously choose to turn off all of their devices for day and just engage the world maybe read a book maybe speak to your partner instead of tweeting them or texting them you know in other words that the idea is the Sabbath was not made for man but it was made or man was not made I should say for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for man and if the Sabbath if our understanding of the Sabbath and all of the things that God prohibits on the Sabbath if the only thing that we see is what we can't do and somehow man has missed the sense of what the Sabbath is for in other words and in fact she goes on in the book and she or in her discussion she talks about how the Puritans celebrate the Sabbath and in the founding years the early years of our of the colonial period and she mentions how they they since they couldn't light a fire on the Sabbath they ate their food cold even today strict sabitarians I had a friend in some friends that were in the reform Baptist church a reform association of reform Baptist churches of America and they're calling me and they're going back and forth over an issue because a brother in a church I won't even mention the state it wasn't California or Florida but it was it was a reform Baptist church but a brother was being disciplined by his local assembly because he went to a restaurant he was seen in a restaurant on the Lord's day man was not made for the Sabbath now here's the thing they don't get the spirit of the Sabbath if you're complaining and I don't even know if he went to this restaurant after church or went to the restaurant instead of church but but something is missing that if if we clog up our church calendars with church discipline because somebody went to a restaurant on the Lord's day and you know what they reasoned from it said wow the Pharisees do live they said well wasn't necessarily wrong for him to go to the restaurant because at least he's not cooking but his patronage of the restaurant requires other people to work and therefore break the Sabbath man was not made for the Sabbath man was made to glorify God and if we only see the laws and what they prohibit and think that we have kept the Sabbath because well I didn't know my grasp today and and how many of us grew up in households where if you were going to go to church on Sunday you better iron your clothes on Saturday not because you take too long but simply because we don't work on the Lord's day amen we don't work on the Lord's day man was not made for the Sabbath the Sabbath was made for man and what the Pharisees were doing in their misunderstanding of the law and their superstitious attachment to it they were loose they were tightening the grips of the law on God's on Christ's servants and even not just on his servants they they were doing this with Jesus they did it with others as well in other words the law the reason the law condemns us is because it tells us what we ought to do and it shows us what we haven't done yeah now the part that they got right is that the law does prohibit prohibit certain things so the mosaic law does prohibit certain activities what they don't yet is that the law also exposes our failures and what they don't see is how they how the law of the Sabbath exposes their failures in the Sabbath that they could be in their temples they could be in their synagogues and if they are keeping the letter of the law but do not respond to the spirit of the law and are not connected with God through his creation or his other image bearers then they themselves are in violation of the Sabbath you see brothers and sisters if the disciples of Jesus were really in sin then the Pharisees according to the spirit of the law should have as loving brothers confronted them and showed them a more excellent way man was not made for the Sabbath the Sabbath was made for man and every time we start going down our checklist of what we ought to do and ought not to do it is a wrong understanding of the Sabbath now by the way we we have to mention this because some people will say in fact I had a brother who was upset and said you know you guys worship on Sunday who gave you the right to do that so every time we talk about the Sabbath someone will possibly bring up the possibility well isn't the Sabbath the seventh day okay so I'm going to grant that of course the Sabbath is the seventh day but we know the reason we worship on the first day rather than the seventh day is because one Jesus was raised on the first day of the week secondly we see through a number of statements in the New Testament including first Corinthians that it was the first day of the week when the Christians met thirdly we know that John and others in the New Testament refer to the first day of the week as the Lord's day so if you want to quibble over Saturday versus Sunday worship him on Saturday that's fine as long as we get to the third thing that Jesus says and he says that he even he is the Lord of the Sabbath in other words he is the Lord over the Sabbath he's the Lord of the Sabbath interesting why he's the Lord of the Sabbath because God sees from his work right God sees from creation he sees from his work of creation but here's what we get in Genesis 1 we are told that God said in the beginning there was and God called the lights into existence he called the stars he created everything by speaking it to it and speaking it into existence which we called creation by the act in other words God gives a word and whatever he says it becomes but then we read the gospel of John and John just throws a monkey wrench into everything in John 1 it says in the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God and there was nothing made that was not made by him speaking of the word and then Paul in Colossians 1 says that he has created all things for his glory things that are seen and unseen powers and principalities and in him he says by him all things were made that are made and in here or by him all things consist so guess who worked in creation Jesus and so when he says he's the Lord of the Sabbath that means it is he and his work that we are reflecting upon on this on the Lord's day so it's in other words if the purpose of the Sabbath is for man to behold the work of God it is to behold the work of the triune God it is to behold the work of the Son of God the second the eternal Son of God who is the second person of the Godhead who is the creator of all things so that when we when Jesus Jesus tells the the Pharisees in other words there with me I'm the Lord of the Sabbath if I don't have an issue with it you don't
because this whole thing is about me so brothers and sisters that's why Paul can tell the Colossians don't get tripped up over days of the week and holy days and these days know this that you are complete in him who is the head of all principality that you are in him by faith he's crushed the enemy and all of the writing the handwriting of ordinances that were against you he's already canceled it so he's given us a day whereby we rest and we behold the work of God the work of God in creation the work of God in redemption communing with God through the mediation of his Son Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath because the Sabbath is about him Matthew 11 Jesus says come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest take my burden upon you because my burden is easy and my my burden is life and my yoke is easy and you know what he says you'll find you'll find rest for your souls Jesus is the substance of the Sabbath Jesus is he is the primary work that is being observed in the Sabbath Jesus is the reason for the Sabbath because it is only through him that we can actually glorify God so here's what Jesus says to the Pharisees you're going to have to find another one this one won't fly that that fish won't swim he because understand this I am the Lord of the Sabbath and it's interesting he kind of closes with that because there's nothing to come back from on that other than to say he's blasphining because for him to say that he is the Lord of the Sabbath is for him to claim his deity and they have a problem with that too brothers and sisters God has given us a day I know we we we are busy there's nobody that that has anything going on that's not busy and I I pray that we are not Phariseical about the day that he gives us but I pray that we understand that that what God has called us to in this day of rest is for our good so that we can better glorify him yeah we pray that we would understand that Jesus not only is he the reason for the season that we say during Christmas Jesus is the substance of the Sabbath and without him we are condemned because brothers and sisters man is supposed to worship God whether they know how to or not but it is only because of Jesus that we can meet with God and not be consoled man or the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath but praise be to God Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath here's what I tell some of my friends they say well what if you wrong about this what if you're wrong about the Sabbath well I say well my faith is in Jesus and I'm convinced that even that is paid for by his blood let's pray our God and our Father we do thank you for another Lord's day that you have given to us for our good we pray that you would give us wisdom oh yeah that we would navigate your gifts in a manner that is profitable to us and brings glory to you we pray that we would not be cavalier that we would not treat this as any other day that's on the calendar you sanctify it and you sanctify it for us and we pray at the same time that we would not be legalist about it and we would not be superstitious we prayed that we would observe this day not because we fear hell but we would observe this day because we love you and so if there's something that has hindered us from honoring what you have given for our good we repent and we pray that you would open our eyes to see it and as we see it as it truly is let us embrace the substance of this day for your glory and for our good we thank you for Christ we thank you for his sacrifice we thank you for his work but most of all we thank you for his words of peace and it is in his name that we pray amen amen would you please stand