Did Jesus Keep the Sabbath?

0:43 Would you turn in your Bibles, please, to Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter 2. I do want to give a plug for the evangelism class. I've been watching some of it online. They do such an excellent job. It's so practical, helpful, get over the fear of talking to people. So if you have any inclination at all to learn those skills after this service over in the hub, please go do that. So every Friday evening, when the sun dips below the horizon, the Jewish Sabbath begins. I had never experienced a Sabbath day until I went to Israel and lived on a farm, a kibbutz. And I was impressed by so many things right off the bat. It was the first time I ever did any international travel. And so I'm in Israel and I hear people greeting each other and myself, shalom, shalom, shalom. And I thought, well, first of all, that's a cool thing to say to somebody, peace, peace, peace. But then on Friday afternoons and Saturday, the greeting changes completely from Shalom to Shabbat Shalom, a Sabbath of peace.

1:57 So every week you hear that they are celebrating a weekly memorial, a Sabbath of peace, Shabbat Shalom. And I started observing what people do in that country every Friday afternoon, and Saturday. Husbands typically go to the flower store and buy a bouquet of flowers for their wives on Friday afternoons. The wife is at home. She will light the candles 18 minutes before the sunset. People dress up. People slow down. People gather around the table for a long, leisurely family meal every week. And I observed that and I thought, okay, that's like the best tradition ever. That's a good idea. I loved it until I went into a hotel elevator on the Sabbath. And if you've ever been to Israel and celebrated Shabbat, you know what I'm talking about. So you get on a hotel elevator.

3:05 The elevator will automatically stop from Friday evening when the sun goes down until Saturday evening. It will stop at every single floor. You can push buttons all day long, won't change a thing. It's just going to stop at every floor, open up the doors for a minute or two, or not a minute or two, but a while to get people in and out. And then now if you're on the 21st floor, bring a lunch. You'll be there a while. It is just so slow and time consuming. And the rationale is that it is unlawful to operate machinery on the Sabbath day. And for you to push the button to complete an electrical circuit constitutes work. So it's automatic.

3:59 what's really interesting about that is I discovered the rabbis will tell you it's okay for you to climb the stairs. So if you're on the 21st floor and you don't want to wait for the elevator, you may want to climb the stairs. But the thing about that, when you're done climbing 21 flights of stairs, you have done so much more work than that. So I guess the Sabbath elevator is a good place to test if you're claustrophobic or antisocial. But the big picture is Sabbath is meant to slow you down. And I'll confess that is one area of my life I am not good at. I get it from my mom. She was always on her feet, always working with their hands. I'm much the same way. And even though I have preached messages like this one and others on relaxation and rest, I am still learning how to do that. I remember years ago, after a very difficult season of ministry where I was physically, spiritually, and mentally exhausted, I got away with my wife for a little vacation at a nice little mountain lake, and I found myself doing something, practicing something that I had heard of before but I had never done. It's called a nap.

5:29 I had just never taken naps. My wife is good at that. I was horrible at that. But I found myself taking a nap, not a nap, excuse me, but two naps every day. And after a few days of doing that, I could focus. I was creative in my thinking once again. I could see clearer. It was fabulous. And I do remember a proverb that came to mind during that episode. It's a Greek proverb. It says, if you always keep the bow bent, eventually it will break. That's how I had been living. The bow had been bent, bent, bent for a long time. The next two paragraphs in the Gospel of Mark, the one we're going to look at today and the one we are going to look at next week, take place on the Sabbath day. Jesus is accused of breaking, violating the Sabbath.

6:39 Now, to bring you up to speed, this is another conflict that our Lord has with religious leaders. It is not the first. It's not the last. We're only in chapter two and he's already had three conflicts. And it's going to continue till they kill him. The first conflict takes place in Peter's house. You may remember when Jesus healed a paralytic, a man let down the ceiling by his friends. Jesus turned to him and said, son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. That ticked religious leaders off. It set them against him. The second conflict took place when our Lord called Matthew, the tax collector, to be one of his disciples, and then followed Matthew to his house for a party, and he was eating with tax collectors and sinners. Pharisees didn't like that. The third conflict is when they came to him and had an issue, a derogatory question, really about fasting. Basically said, look, we do it and you guys don't do it. What's up?

7:47 This is now the next conflict. It takes place on the Sabbath day. The word Sabbath appears five times in five verses. That is the main concern. What is the relationship of Jesus Christ to the Sabbath? So I want to make four observations about the Sabbath in this story and what it means to keep the Sabbath. First is a very simple observation because it is mentioned five times in five verses. The observation is this. The Sabbath was the benchmark in Judaism. It was at the very core of their covenantal identity. In verse 23, we read this. Now it happened that he, Jesus, went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And as they went, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

8:46 The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word Shabbat. It simply means to stop. Stop. Cease. Desist. Rest. Chill. Stop. It is one of the Ten Commandments. So it was important enough to make God's top ten list. It is the number four of the Ten Commandments. And the Sabbath goes all the way back to creation. When God created the heavens and the earth, we are told in Genesis 2, on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Now that carries all the way forward to the book of Exodus, the very next book, when the Ten Commandments are given, and the fourth commandment is stated, where the Lord says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

9:49 six days you shall labor and do all your work. The seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth and he rested on the seventh. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and he hollered it. Now, when you read that God rested on the seventh day. I don't want you to get the idea that God was like pooped. Man, those elephants really took it out of me. Or, you know, working with those insects, you know, just my eyes are tired. It's not that kind of needing a break. It's the idea that he was done. It was enough. It was finished. He had no more to add. He did it all in six days, and it was enough. He could have kept working seven, eight, 10, 12, 145 days. But imagine how full the earth would be had he done that.

10:53 So he did all that he needed to do in six days. That became the benchmark and the practice going forward. I have a question. Why did God make it a command? Why did God need to make it a command? since when do you need to command people to relax, to stop, to take a break? And I think it's for a very simple reason because he knows us. He made us. He's an excellent judge of human character. He knows we need a command. We are prone to neglect this. I can prove it in the book of Nehemiah when the Jews came back to rebuild Jerusalem, we are told the people in Judah were treading the winepress, bringing in the sheaves, and loading donkeys with produce on the Sabbath day.

11:52 What were they doing? They were treating the Sabbath like every other day, like Monday through Friday, Sunday through Friday in their case. It was a day of commerce to buy and sell, no rest. breaking the sabbath is the only command some people actually brag about breaking I haven't had a vacation for four years. Like, good for me. Or vacation? What's a vacation? Day off, I'm too busy working. We brag about it. And part of the reason for that is we live in a culture that identifies people with what they do. when you meet someone the first question you ask is what is your name typically at least second or third question is what do you do what do you do that helps us identify what that person is all about we have become as somebody said a generation of people who worship our work work at our play and play at our worship.

13:08 so God says, remember the Sabbath day. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Don't forget that part. See, this day is different. It's holy. It's set apart, unlike any other day. It's not just a day for you to sleep in. It's not a day for you just to binge and watch Netflix all day long. It is to keep holy. So simply put, God is saying, set a day apart for me to do whatever I want, whatever I love. When my son Nate was growing up, we had, my wife invented this. Wasn't my idea. It's a good idea. She came up with this idea called, I love Nathan Day. So she'd pick Nate up from school and she'd say, do you know what today is?

14:07 No, mom, what? Today's an I love Nathan day. Well, at first he didn't know what that was. Nobody did. So she'd explain because it's an I love Nathan day, you get to pick where we're going to eat. You get to pick what activity we're going to do. You get to pick what store we're going to go to to look at stuff. It's all about what you want to do. Think of the Sabbath as an I love God day. what do you want Lord what activities do you want me to do today back in 1924 Eric Little ran the 1924 Olympics his best event and the one he was trained for was the hundred meter the only problem with that is all the heats all the preliminary races all the practice sessions took place on Sunday. So he bowed out. He was a Christian. He wanted to honor the Lord's day. So he did not participate in any of those heats for the hundred meter. Instead, he was at churches preaching.

15:10 A few days later, he ran the 400 meter. That was not his race, but he ran it and he won the gold medal. And he set a new world record. And the way he explained it is God honored me because I honored God. That's how he explained it. So the Sabbath day is a day where God is honored and we are recharged. It was a longstanding practice that became the benchmark of the covenant with Israel. So the Sabbath was a benchmark. Second observation is the Sabbath became a burden, became a burden. Verse 24. Well, let's go back to verse 23 and read that and 24 together. It happened as he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. As they went, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to him, look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? Now, here's what you need to know. What they were doing actually was lawful on the Sabbath. They were not breaking any scriptural law. They were only breaking traditional laws that they themselves had added to God's law. So the disciples are outside. They're with Jesus. They're walking probably around Capernaum in the grain fields. It is probably April, May. The wheat and barley will ripen around April all the way to August. So they're out walking. The law of Moses stipulated that what they were doing was okay. I don't know if you know this or not, but Deuteronomy 23 gives a compassionate law for travelers who get hungry while they're traveling. Think of it as the Old Testament law of fast food.

17:22 It's Deuteronomy 25 verse 23. Let me read it to you. 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. For obvious reasons. You can't like harvest a bunch, take it home for the next few weeks and months, or sell it. You can just take what you need while you're walking. It was a very compassion. God was allowing hungry people to get a quick bite if they're in a grain field. And yet the Pharisees said what they are doing is not lawful. You know why? They had poured into the law of the Sabbath in the Old Testament, they had poured into it so many complicated details that God never intended. And here's how it happened.

18:21 years before this the jews had gone into captivity for 70 years tell me where they went babylon for 70 years in captivity after being spanked by god in a babylonian captivity they were cured and they came back into the land many of them so devout saying we don't want to repeat that. So we want to be sticklers on obeying God in every detail. And a group arose from that called the parushim. You know them as the Pharisees. The Pharisees. It means separated ones. These were guys so bent on keeping every detail of the law. So the Old Testament says, you can't work on the Sabbath day. That wasn't good enough for them. What does that mean, you can't work. So they came up with 39 different categories of what that means. And those 39 categories had their own subcategories. And they added and added and they debated and they wrote and eventually came up with the oral law called the Talmud. The Talmud. In the Talmud, there were eventually 24 chapters on Sabbath regulations. 24 chapters.

19:49 Like what constitutes a burden? Can you lift a lamp on the Sabbath? Can a woman wear a brooch on the Sabbath? Can you lift up a child on the Sabbath? Here's an example. A scribe couldn't carry a pen on the Sabbath because that's his implement of work. A tailor could not carry a needle. A student couldn't carry books. No insects can be killed on the Sabbath. It's great news if you're an insect. No candle or flame can be lit or extinguished on the Sabbath. No bathing was allowed on the Sabbath. And here's why. Water could spill out onto the floor and you could accidentally wash it. That would be work. a radish could not be left in salt because it could turn into a pickle. I'm telling you, they wrote this stuff down. You could not walk more than 3,000 feet on the Sabbath or 1,999 steps. But if you did come to the end of that 3,000 feet, 1,999 steps, and you put a rope across the street when you got there into the next neighborhood, you can go now another 3,000 feet and another 3,000.

21:08 You just keep adding the rope. I kid you not. There is a cable around the city of Jerusalem that allows people to walk where they want to and keep that law. Looking in the mirror was forbidden on the Sabbath. Why? Because if you saw gray hair, you would be tempted to pull it out. you could not wear false teeth on the sabbath if they fell out you would want to pick them up and if you pick them up you are doing work you couldn't carry anything that weighed more than two dried figs because that would be bearing a burden you see what is happening They lost the concept that this is a day of rest. You need a vacation after you keep the Sabbath to recover.

22:02 The Jews even debated, can I eat an egg laid by my hen on the Sabbath? Well, why? You didn't do it. The hen did. Yeah, but it's my hen and I'd be complicit in its work. I kid you not, they debated this. And here was the solution. Sell it to a Gentile. That'll solve the problem. You can sell the egg to the Gentile. That's perfectly lawful, but you can't eat it. Pharisees even debated spitting on the ground on the Sabbath. It became unlawful because you might accidentally water the grass. and if the spittle rolls in the dirt, you have dug a furrow, which is technically agricultural work. All of that is written in the Talmud. So here come Jesus and his disciples are doing what Deuteronomy says to do, but to them it's unlawful. Why? Because by plucking grain, they were harvesting.

23:11 By rubbing the grain together, they were threshing. By blowing the chaff away from the wheat, they were winnowing. And by doing all that and eating it, they're preparing a meal. That's how they classified it. living like this turns you into a list maker. Nobody likes a list maker.

23:37 List makers make a list and they judge people by the list they made. And that kind of legalism sucks the joy out of everything and leaves only pride. and it's the worst form of sin because it's just sin covered over by a thin veneer of religion.

24:03 Sin as a caterpillar is dangerous. Sin as a butterfly is a thousand times worse. Sin in its ugliest form is apparent. When it puts on robes of righteousness, it's far worse. That's why God said in the book of Isaiah, your new moons and your Sabbath days, my soul hates because they had turned the Sabbath into this. So it had become a burden. Here's the third observation I'd like you to notice. The Sabbath needs a balance. And Jesus provides that balance. Verse 25, but he said to them, here's the balance. Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him, how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him. So Jesus balances the ceremonial regulation with human need. The story is from the Old Testament. You're familiar with 1 Samuel chapter 21. David is running away for his life, fleeing from his father-in-law, King Saul, who's trying to kill him. David goes to a little town about one mile north of Jerusalem called Nob, N-O-B, where the tabernacle was set up. He and his men are hungry. They've been traveling all day. And he goes, Hey, you got any Chick-fil-A? They didn't have that because it was Sunday. No, but they were asking for food. They had no food. So they gave the, the priest said, all we have is holy bread, the show bread. So first Samuel chapter 21, it says, so the priest gave him that is David, holy bread for there was no bread there, but the show bread, which had been taken from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.

26:06 So here's the deal. Once a week on Sabbath, the priest would bake bread. It's work. And they would take the hot bread and put it on the table of show bread in the tabernacle, 12 loaves, one representing each of the 12 tribes, take the old bread that had been there all week, take it home and eat it. Only the priest could eat it. Only the priest could eat it. But the balance was we have David and his men who have a need. Let's break the ceremonial law and feed them. God did not rebuke David. God did not rebuke the high priest. So too, the Sabbath regulation is being balanced out by human need according to the law of Deuteronomy 23, 25. But I like the way Jesus begins his answer. He said to them, have you never read?

27:06 What a question to ask Bible nerds like Pharisees who read it all, who wrote a lot of stuff extra, who spent their days reading and researching and studying. Don't you guys read your Bibles? Luke expands that a little bit. It says, Jesus said, have you not even read this? Well, the answer is, of course, they read this. They knew 1 Samuel 21. They knew the story. They knew the facts of the story. What they didn't know or what they ignored was its meaning, its application. This is why we must constantly evaluate what we do with what this says. and to do that, we have to know what it says, so the question of Jesus is a very poignant question, is it not?

28:14 Have you not read? What if Jesus turned to you today and said, have you not read? you'd have to say well i've read psalms and matthew does that count it does but have you not read i really haven't read a lot of that um i know this is a bible church and most of you have read but you may be interested to find out that according to Lifeway Research, from 11% to 13%, that's the high number, 13%. Let's just stay there, 13%. 13% of Christians, only 13% have read the entire Bible cover to cover.

29:10 So that's a very poignant question. Have you not read? They'd have to say, I haven't. Only 19% read their Bibles daily. I get it. It's a daunting task. You get to some of those genealogies and those names, those Levitical laws. But did you know that even a basic understanding of the Old Testament is going to help you understand the New Testament? It's going to help you. It's going to create a broad worldview, Old and New Testament, of how God thinks. Now, if you think it's still too daunting, if you were to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, 66 books, every chapter, every verse, at pulpit speed, that's slow enough to read it out loud, it's going to take you between 70 to 76 hours. You go, I don't have that time, 76 hours. Break it up in a year, that's 12 minutes a day. 12 minutes a day. 12 minutes a day. How much time do you spend on your phone every day?

30:27 I guarantee you it's more than 12 minutes. And every Sunday you get the little notice that tells how much screen time you've been all week. So don't you think God deserves equal time? 12 minutes a day. Charles Haddon Spurgeon encouraged his people to take their cues in life from the Bible. Everything you do should be formed by that view of life and truth. He said, you should take your cues from the Bible so that your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord. so that your very blood is bibline and the very essence of the Bible flows from you.

31:15 You see, knowing the Scripture is what will give you the balance. It'll give you the balance in every area of your life. It'll balance grace and truth. It'll balance personal time and time with others. It'll balance ministry and family, work and rest. The Sabbath needs a balance. Here's the fourth and the final observation we should make. The Sabbath should be a blessing. That was its intention. The Sabbath should be a blessing. Verse 27 says, and he said to them. So he said something to them. Then he said something else to them in closing it out. And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. therefore the son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Now there's two statements there. Let me take one at a time. First of all, Jesus said, this day is a gift.

32:15 It's a gift from God. Sabbath was made for man. God invented it so that you could have a break, so that you could have a rest. It is given to benefit you, not to burden you. The Pharisees are burdening you. Did I keep all 39? Did I go through all the 24 chapters? And it's meant to be a blessing, not a burden. Why? So you can operate at peak and find peace.

32:45 You know, production analysts say, and I'm quoting one of them, a work break will increase productivity. Because after 40 hours of work, concentration levels drop, mistakes increase, morale goes down. God knew that before there were any production analysts analyzing anything. That's why he made the commandment. It's a gift. Sabbath was made for man. You know, it's amazing. In an age where devices are supposed to save time, I have never seen so many hurried and restless people. Think of your devices, your computer, phone, internet, all designed to save you time. If so, why is everyone out of breath? I wrote this down. I was reading, believe it or not, one day, I was reading my owner's manual from my vehicle, which nobody ever does. And I never did, but I thought, I'm going to read it. And I started reading. It was a previous vehicle that I had, and I liked it so much, I wanted to share it with you.

33:58 I won't talk about the carburetors or things like that. Okay, that's an old car, but the manual says this, regular maintenance is essential to obtain the highest level of performance, safety, and reliability from your vehicle. This booklet is designed to help you make sure your vehicle receives proper and timely maintenance. Follow this booklet's recommendations and you will enjoy maximum reliability and peace of mind for many years to come. The reason I wrote that down is because I thought, follow this booklet's recommendations and you will enjoy maximum reliability and peace of mind for many years to come. That's God's manual for you. And one of the things he said is, here's a gift. It's called Shabbat for you to rest and recharge.

35:01 Now, every now and then I will encounter some pious workaholic saint who says, I'd rather burn out than rust out. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. You know why it's stupid? Because if you burn out, you're out. If you rust out, you're out. who wants to go out when you can stay in the game and serve the Lord and make an impact and influence people? a rest is not a luxury it's a necessity a day off is not carnal it's christ-like in mark chapter 6 and we're going to get to it but i'll warn you it's several months away the apostles gathered around jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught get that all they had done. And then because so many people were coming and going and they didn't even have time to eat, he said to them, come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.

36:18 That's Christ our Lord commanding his disciples, rest. You see, if it's done right, if the Sabbath has done right, this rest day can become your best day. That's what you want to make it. You want to make your rest day your best day. So look at verse 28. That's the second of these final little statements. Therefore, because of this, because of all that I've just said, therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Don't think they missed that. It's a very pregnant statement. It is going to set them so far and hard against him because you know what he is claiming. He's claiming to be God in human flesh. That term son of man comes right out of Daniel chapter 7. The vision of the ancient of days and the son of man coming to the ancient of days.

37:15 And to him, to him, the Son of Man is given glory and dominion and a kingdom that will never end. So for Jesus to plop in there and say, the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath day, is for him to say, I am the divine King who created the Sabbath. Therefore, my authority is the ultimate authority of what goes on on this day. Wow. it's a gift. There was an angry church member, not here, though every church has some, but an angry church member went to his pastor and said, I phoned you on Monday and I couldn't get to you. Pastor smiled and he said, well, that's because it's my day off. The guy jumped back and said, day off? You're supposed to be available. You're a pastor.

38:12 the devil never takes a day off. The pastor said, you're right, he doesn't, and if I didn't take a day off, I'd be just like him. So let me give you three things to walk away with that I think are practical. Number one, get better at chilling out. Some of y'all need to hear that. Chill out. Get better at resting.

38:39 Now, you know what I mean by that. Not while you're working. if you're doom scrolling at work you're stealing you're a thief stealing from the company it's not your time but when it comes to the day of rest get better at that keep that second don't turn into a list maker nobody likes a list maker here's my list you suck all the joy out of everything and then third finally let the scriptures give you balance let the scriptures bring the necessary balance now next week we're going to look at things like when did the sabbath change that's the question is often asked from saturday to sunday uh or did it uh why do we meet on sunday i i want to take the time at least to explore a couple of those things as we get into the next paragraph, but I'd like to close on a promise. Jesus said this, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you what? That's the promise. I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. Greater than the blessing of the Sabbath is the blessing of knowing the Christ who invented the Sabbath, coming to him, coming to rest, resting in his finished work for us.

40:19 That's why he is called the Sabbath, our Sabbath. Father, we want to leave it there at that high note of Jesus being our place of rest, the finished work that he has done. Lord I do pray since you have given us this precious gift where once a week we can unplug and recharge and get clarity and gain perspective become more creative like you Lord I pray that you will keep us in the game longer be more effective longer that we would work hard and rest well and keep that balance going forward. And I pray for anyone who has not come to Jesus to rest in his finished work, that they would come to him.

41:17 And if you happen to be here today and you've never said yes and surrendered your life to Christ, you could do it right where you are. Whether you're outside this building right now or you're inside or you're watching on some streaming platform or listening to this on a radio or a television broadcast, if you've not surrendered your life to Christ, you can do that by just a simple, honest prayer. I can lead you, if you'd like, say, Lord, I give you my life. I surrender.

41:56 I know that I'm a sinner. would you please forgive me I turn. I turn around. I turn from living the way I've been living, doing what I've been doing, thinking like I've been thinking. I repent and I turn to Jesus as Lord and Savior. come in and fill my heart. Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

42:24 I make Christ the King and Lord of my life. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.