Greeneville Seventh-day Adventist Church: We saw John the Baptist question who Jesus really was because of his expectations not being fulfilled. You remember that? Is he really the one or shall we look for another? We saw the crowd rejecting Jesus from an overall lack of seriousness over what he was teaching. Not truly accepting and applying what they were hearing or applying it to somebody else. ⁓ he must mean them. Certainly not me. We saw cities rejecting Jesus. Remember he told Capernaum, his hometown in that region, ⁓ it's gonna go better for Sodom than for you, because you have a whole lot more information than they did. And you're still rejecting. But in chapter 12, we find the most serious rejection of all, that of the church leadership, the Pharisees. While Jesus had been widely accepted early in his ministry, over time the Jewish religious leaders came to see that his teachings, his deeds, were incompatible or clashing with their basic positions. They came to realize that if the people accepted and followed Jesus' teachings, their own leadership would be threatened, made to look bad. His teaching did not match their way of thinking. did not look right in their eyes, did not make sense to a society built on what you do rather than what God does. This whole Jesus thing was not making them look good at all. They clashed in more ways than one. The principles of the Kingdom of Heaven were clashing with the principles of the Kingdom of the Jewish Church. The first confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees and Matthew 12 has to do with the Sabbath. Of all their religious practices, the Sabbath was the most important to the Jews. They took their Sabbath observance very seriously. We cannot question their sincerity at all. They were sincere. After all, in the second century BC, when enemy soldiers attacked the Jews, the Jewish soldiers and their families just stood there because it was the Sabbath and allowed them to kill them. They did not fight. They say over a thousand Jews were killed that day. After that, other Jews made a decision that it's okay to defend yourself and fight on the Sabbath. In fact, this very morning, the Jews were fighting. So we can see that they were desperately earnest to protect the Sabbath. They had a rule against almost every conceivable way to break the Sabbath law of the Ten Commandments. 1,521 rules. You think you could keep up with that? It's kind of like our tax code. Whatever you have filled out, you are wrong. Maybe that's why Matthew tells this story right after the place where he ended last in chapter 11, where he quotes Jesus as saying, for my yoke is easy and my burden is what? Burdens lie. all for these endless rules and regulations. Matthew wants us to understand that Jesus is not against the Sabbath at all, but he's against the multitude of man-made rules that keep it from being the blessing it was created to be. Each of us may have our own guidelines of keeping Sabbath within our homes that go beyond a thus saith the Lord. And that's fine as long as we know that by keeping those rules in our homes, we're reminded to spend our time with the Lord of the Sabbath, not spend our time going, did we do that rule right? And we've had sermons on this, so I'm not going to repeat what's been said, but even if you've traveled in various cultures, you soon realize that cultures have their own rules for Sabbath observance. And this is also fine, as long as they know why such traditions exist, and that they should point to Jesus, our Creator, rather than rules to be worshiped in and of themselves. When I was a kid in the College Dale Pathfinder Club, one of the big competitions at Camperee was walking on stilts. Does anybody remember that? You remember stilts? I went up to our Pathfinder room yesterday and looked into the closet, and they have a pair of stilts left over from those days. In fact, so do I. I dug around in my barn yesterday and found them. Here they are. These are my stilts. My dad made these for me so I could practice for competition. I still have everything I ever owned. And so my dad built these so I could practice at home and I would go up and down the road. I would go around in the yard on these things. I was so comfortable on these things, they were like shoes. And I thought, yeah, I'll always be able to do that. And I brought them over to the church yesterday and went out in the hall and tried to get on these. It was not pretty. I had to try three times to get up. And I'm like, whoa, I'm out of practice. And no, I'm not going to do it for you today. And it's all Angela M.D.' fault. Yes it is, because I don't want to break a bone before going on your mission trip here in a couple weeks to Peru. So I don't want to be on that plane with a cast. So no, I'm done with these for a while. But, so our Pathfinder Club, we practiced and practiced on these things. We piled all our stilts in the Pathfinder bus and hauled them to Camporee. and the competition was going to be on Sunday morning. And there were two different competitions. The first one was, how high a stilt can you walk on? And wow, it was pretty neat. There were clubs, they'd send out their best stilt walker, and he might be three feet up, or five feet up. Well, I think I saw one kid do six feet high. Our club asked to go last. We didn't show our stilts until everybody was done. We opened the back door of the bus and they pulled the stilts out and they kept pulling and pulling and pulling. And they also pulled out a ladder and out comes our stilt walker, a short, stocky, strong guy. And used the ladder to get on top of the bus, which he used to get on top of his stilts. I don't remember the exact height he was, but it was over 12 feet. You can take some long steps in 12 feet. He just walked everywhere like it was nothing. And then we had stilt races, relay races, where all the clubs, the whole club would have to participate in these races. And you would... You run from one end to the other, or the lines, whatever they had, whichever year. But I remember one year on Sabbath before the stilt races, there were some of the boys that were out behind the tents of our club, and they were practicing on Sabbath, on their stilts. Now I'm not saying getting up on a pair of stilts on Sabbath is gonna condemn you, but they're practicing for competition. And they're back there practicing, practicing, practicing. And one of the Pathfinder leaders went back and caught them. Boys, do you think that's a Sabbath-y activity? Without hesitation, one of the bigger boys said, yes, sir. And how's that? Well, we're playing Bible stilts. Which means if you fall off, you have to say a Bible verse. Okay. If you have to justify your position, you're usually. But Jesus justified the actions of his disciples. But he wasn't wrong because he was using scripture to share. ⁓ And I look back at that Pathfinder leader and I said, I think he blew it. Because instead of just telling them to put the stilts away like he did, he could have sat down with them and said, let's talk. And let's show what Sabbath is supposed to be, building a relationship with your creator. Maybe he didn't have that relationship himself, I don't know. But instead of just saying, thou shalt not and walk away. But Jesus is being accused of Sabbath breaking and he has something to say about that giving his disciples some backup here. Look at verse one of chapter 12. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. Okay, what are the Pharisees doing? They're looking around, being police officers on the Sabbath. I don't think that was lawful either. But they're just trying to catch Jesus and his disciples doing something wrong. Notice they're not accusing the disciples of theft. Deuteronomy 23, 24, and 25 permits them to eat the grain from someone else's field. It says, when you come into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure. But you shall not put any in a container. In other words, you're not stocking up. When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain. So, this summer, if you see me in your garden, it's okay. No, the problem is, it's not thou shalt not steal, the problem was Jesus disciples were picking and eating the grain on the Sabbath. In the process they broke several Jewish rules for the Sabbath. Notice I said Jewish rules, not biblical rules. And you know, they were enhancing some of the things that Moses had taught. As the Pharisees understood it, picking grain was reaping. Rubbing the grain from the husks, as Luke puts it, was threshing. Blowing away the husks could be interpreted as winnowing. And the whole process was obviously the preparation of food, a task that should have been done on the sixth day. According to the Talmud, it was sinful to reap and grind grain that amounted to more than the bulk of one dried fig. On the Sabbath. Well, that's just enough to raise your appetite without bedding it back down. Not helpful at all. Verse 3, But he said to them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry? He and those who were with him, how they entered the house of God and ate the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless." That's what he calls his own disciples. They're guilt free. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. You notice when Jesus uses the term Son of Man, they automatically said, he's claiming to be the Messiah. That goes all the way back to the book of Daniel. So Jesus answers them with two illustrations from the scripture. The first deals with David's unlawful eating of the consecrated showbread in 1 Samuel 21, which demonstrates that human need takes precedence over ritual precision. Jesus' second illustration is based on Numbers 28, which indicates that God commanded the priest to offer a large number of routine sacrifices on the Sabbath more than on weekdays. And they were without guilt. So Jesus is basically saying that the worship of God takes precedence over the regulations of the day. Then his argument climaxes when he claims to be greater than the temple and the Sabbath. Being the Lord and creator of the Sabbath, he knows how it is to be kept. The temple service was to show the mercy of God from the mercy seed. Jesus even quotes from Hosea 6, 6 which says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice and knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. So according to Jesus, Mercy is better in the eyes of God than even the ritual exactness commanded by God in the books of Moses, let alone the human rules developed by the scribes and the Pharisees. To make this point even more clear, Matthew tells us another story, chapter 12 verse 9. Now when he had departed from there, he went into their synagogue. This is in Capernaum. And if you visit Capernaum today, you can enter that same synagogue. It's open to the sky now, and the floor you're walking on is actually built on top of the floor that Jesus would have walked on. It was a lower foundation today. And so... Verse 10, and behold there was a man who had a withered hand and they asked him saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath that they might accuse him? So it's a trap. Then he said to them, what man is there among you who has one sheep and if he falls into a pit on the Sabbath will not lay hold of it and lift it out. of how much more value than is a man than a sheep. Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out and it was restored as whole as the other. Jesus deliberately heals a man with a crippled hand on the Sabbath in the very presence of the accusing Jews. The rabbis permitted healing on the Sabbath if human life was in danger, but a crippled hand was hardly a life-threatening illness. We don't even know how long he had this condition. But Jesus fixed it on the Sabbath. Mark in chapter two of this gospel puts the Sabbath and all other divine law in perspective when he quotes Jesus at this point as saying that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. I gave it to you. In our prayer this morning, I heard it said, thank you for this Sabbath day you have given us. That's perfect. He has given it to us. This is a gift for you. It's not something for me to make sure that, do you know they had rules that you couldn't even carry a ballpoint pen on the Sabbath if they had ballpoint pens back then? ⁓ But you know, where's mine? It's in here somewhere. But if you put it in your pocket on Friday, it was okay to take your ballpoint pen to church because your clothing is carrying it, not you. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Jesus is saying, no, that's not what this is about. The Sabbath's made for you. That would drive you crazy, wouldn't it? I didn't create the Sabbath to add stress to your life. I gave you Sabbath to reduce stress to your life. Satan wants us to be stressed. I'm not saying we shouldn't have rules and shouldn't do rules, but they should point to resting with our. It is legalism when law is put above mercy. But as in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus attempts to help the Jews see the spiritual nature of the law, that it must be rooted in agape, unconditional love. After all, I can't count how many times the Bible says, if you love me, do what? Okay, the commandments are worthless if we don't love God. ⁓ they might help you live a happier life a bit. You know, it's nice not to be killing people and stealing their stuff, but the way it matters to God is if we love Him and we do it because of that love, because He first loved us. So how did the Pharisees react to this message of love? Look at verse 14. So the Pharisees finally understood what Jesus meant and there was much rejoicing. Wrong version. That's my version. That's what I wish had happened. Unfortunately, that's not what verse 14 says. Verse 14 says, then the Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him. The Greek word for destroy is epilumi. It means to destroy completely. They not only wanted Jesus dead, they wanted any influence that he had had to be completely erased because it clashed with them. And that's the odd thing about legalism. Legalists, in their supposed love for God and his law, become angry with those who don't see things their way. Or disagree with them over a particular theological interpretation of something. And some of them are so angry that they're willing to murder their opponents, or at least destroy the reputation, and such anger according to Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount is equivalent of murder. was working in a homeless shelter one night. And in that homeless shelter were two pastors. They weren't there to help me, they were up the homeless ones. And these two pastors, maybe they had had too much of the communion wine or something, but they were a little soused. And these two pastors were having a theological discussion in the stairwell that got violent. Both of them pulled out pencils and were trying to stab each other. I had to get between them. Sometimes we get so caught up in things we don't realize what we're doing. Maybe at this point it's less about saving the Sabbath than it is about saving face or pride. It's about thinking that you look good when your values are clashing with what you're saying. There was an older man in my first church, and he loved whacking people over the head with the spirit of prophecy. ⁓ you're doing it wrong, because she says right here, boom, boom. And again and again and again, and one day my human nature took. and I did the same thing to him. It wasn't pretty. Because I pointed out something he was doing that went against the spirit of prophecy. And without missing a beat, instantly he said this, well if she said that, then that proves she's not inspired. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait. You instantly threw something away that you have believed your whole life just because suddenly it makes you look. clashes with what you're doing. quickly I saw that happen it was disturbing I've thought about it to this day obviously how quickly will you give up what you say you believe in when the going gets tough The going's about to get tough. And that concerns me greatly. Well... That man got angry with our very sinful church and went somewhere else and there was much rejoicing. I'm sorry, but I had people saying, wow, I did not know that coming to church to worship God could be joyful because he had always been there pointing out everything. I didn't realize I could have joy. We sing about joy this morning. Do we have that in our hearts? If not, we don't have God in our hearts. Joy does not surround the legalist. The good news though, this very man, I became his pastor once again, many years later, different church. different man. He found Jesus and there was joy in my heart too. There's hope for the Pharisees. If you're a Pharisee, don't give up. God doesn't. Because Jesus did not make them look good because they did not see themselves in his light. Because Jesus revealed how their lives clashed with God's. The Pharisees decided to kill the very Messiah that they had been looking for and preaching of. I pick on legalists a lot. Maybe deep down I know that I'm one as well. It's hard for me to comprehend the mercy and the love of God that makes him want to cover a prodigal son like me with his righteousness and restore me to what he wants me to be. A full son in his household. Maybe I'm afraid that it'll make me not look good to accept what he wants me to wear. Maybe my pride gets in the way and I think that I will look silly giving up. who I used to be. I've known people like that. Well, if I'm old, if I accept Jesus now, then I have to admit I've been wrong. Well, so what? Who cares? Do it. A few years ago, tornadoes did a lot of damage in the Chattanooga area. Many homes were demolished. Five trees landed on my mother's house, miraculously causing very little damage, and I'll share that miracle with you one day. But insurance paid for a new roof and for the trees to be pulled off of that house. did not pay for them to be cut up. That's up to you. When I met with the guys, I said, okay, when you pull them off, just lay them out singly out in the backyard so I can get to them. Well, I got there after they were done and they were all in one great big pile. Ay, yi, yi, makes it so much harder to clean up with a chainsaw, but my brother and I, we went to work day after day and it was hard climbing around on all those huge oak trees. cutting branches that were under tension. Have you ever done that? You cut one of those things, it's like a catapult hits you wrong, smacking you in the face. I had bruises across my face, my shoulders, my head was getting knocked. And I'm like, ⁓ this is painful. And it was taking long because you had to slow down and take good care, trying to prevent damage to yourself. And so I went to the hardware store and I bought a new chain for my chainsaw. And while I was in there, I saw something interesting. I had been bruised physically. Now I have to allow my pride to be bruised as well because I found this. I have watched people wear this and have shaken my head. Oh, you silly person. That makes you look crazy. And I looked at that thing and I'm like, I'm tired of hurting. And I bought it. And I put it on my head. And you know, I was raised in a world where, know, sissies wear helmets. Okay, we don't do that. But I had stopped caring, I had been wounded so much, and I put it on, and it looked silly. Does it not? I don't care. And as you will see, there's sawdust still stuck in here. That sawdust that did not hit me in the face. Okay? And I said, and I went to work wearing this and it got a whole lot easier. I could go at it looking silly in full freedom. Things would whack me on the head, things would whack me in the face, and I didn't even have to slow down. I was free. It made all the difference. And then I couldn't keep it to myself. I went to my brother. I said, hey, you wanna work faster? Get one of these. I don't remember if did or not. He didn't like to look silly either. But once you experience the freedom that the gospel gives, you no longer care about yourself. You care about your relationship with God and your fellow men, a true fulfillment of what God's law is about. We want to share this freedom with our brothers and our sisters, even if they think it makes us look silly. No, no, no, no. Yeah, I know you'll feel silly to start with, but it'll be all right. You'll soon find that you have the experience of freedom you've never had. Verse 15. But when Jesus knew it, what did he know? He knew about the plot to kill him. He withdrew from there. Okay, we can take notice of this. Remember what he told his disciples? Okay, if you're having a hard time getting through, shake the dust off your feet and move on. He didn't persist in having to make his point. They're not ready for this point right now. He moved on from there. And great multitudes followed him and he healed them all. Yet he warned them not to make him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him and he will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench, till he sends forth justice to victory. And in his name Gentiles will trust. This quote's from Isaiah serves as a reminder of where our hope should be placed in these trying days. Our hope should be placed in the only one who can give us rest, and that's the Lord of the rest, the Lord of the Sabbath. By wearing the helmet of salvation, we will truly look good. Our words and deeds will not clash with what's in our hearts. and we will truly bear the name of Christian. Dear Father. When people look at us, help us not to clash. not to clash with our words or our deeds or what's in our heart. In fact, help them not to see us at all. Help us to look so much like you that they are simply drawn to you and that they too can live a life that leads them to eternity. In Jesus' amen.