Sabbath Controversy #1: Expostion

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin introduces the sermon as part of a series on Mark's Gospel, focusing on the fourth incident where Jesus' actions provoke Pharisaic opposition. He notes that this…

Jesus' response to the Pharisees' complaint about His companionship with sinners is likened to a doctor coming for the sick, not the healthy, illustrating His mission to call sinners.

in your hearing, as in the three previous ones, the questions and opposition of the Pharisees form the framework for a further unfolding of the identity of our Lord and of his mission as the Son of Man. When they were concerned about his forgiving the sins of the paralytic, our Lord took the occasion to proclaim the fact that as Son of Man he had authority to forgive sin. When they complained that he was the companion of sinners, he took that occasion to proclaim the great truth that healthy people don't need doctors but only sick people, and that he had come not to call the righteous but sinn...

4:28 - 5:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin introduces the sermon as part of a series on Mark's Gospel, focusing on the fourth incident where Jesus' actions provoke Pharisaic opposition. He notes that this…

Jesus' response to the fasting question is explained through the parables of the patch and new wine into old wineskins, illustrating that He came to institute a new order, not to patch the new onto the old.

And then when John's disciples with the Pharisees came and complained that his disciples, that is the disciples of Jesus, were not fasting, he took that occasion to proclaim the great truth that as the heavenly bridegroom he had come to institute an entirely new order of things, that they could not take parts of the old and patch it on to the new, or put the new wine of new covenant blessing into the old. The old wine skins of old covenant forms and ceremonies. Well just as those three preceding incidents and the opposition that was elicited became the platform for our Lord to proclaim

5:13 - 5:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes the Pharisees' fanatical determination to find fault with Jesus and his disciples. Their objection, 'Why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful?', is…

To understand the Pharisees' ridiculous objections, listeners are encouraged to enter a 'time capsule' to grasp their mindset and the rabbinic traditions of their day.

they could have ever thought that way. That seems so ridiculous to me. Well, I hope it seems ridiculous because it was, but it was nonetheless true. And if you are to understand why they objected the way they did to this innocent activity of simply taking a few years of grain, rubbing it between their hands, probably blowing upon it and eating it, you have got to get into that time capsule we talked about months ago and go back into the situation that existed at that time and seek to have a feel for the mindset of these Pharisees Pharisees. Now, in their efforts to interpret and to enforce the...

14:29 - 15:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: every statement of God's law had been so overburdened with these traditions of the elders as to make it almost impossible for a Jew to be aware of, let alone to keep all of the Sabbath regulations of the scribes and of t…

A summary from Alfred Edersheim's 'The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah' is cited to demonstrate the ridiculousness and burden of Talmudic Sabbath laws, such as forbidding women from looking in mirrors or tailors from carrying needles.

For example, in what is recognized by all responsible Christian scholars as a classic work, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim, he has an appendix at the back of the book on the Talmudic Sabbath law and there are ten pages in this fine print just summarizing what that Talmudic law was and you want to see how ridiculous some of it was? You know what the text meant? Thou shalt do no labor. Here's what it means.

19:03 - 19:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: They bind burdens upon men too heavy to be borne. And what they were binding upon them was not the law of God, but their own silly traditions by the carloads.

An example from Talmudic law about a man using stilts is given to further illustrate the extreme and absurd particularization of Sabbath regulations by the Pharisees.

I'll not weary you with it, but you get some of the flavor of it. If a man were using stilts to walk across a stream in normal conditions, he couldn't do it on a Sabbath because if he fell off, picking up the stilt would be working on the Sabbath. If a man were using stilts to walk across a stream in normal conditions, he couldn't do it on a Sabbath because if he fell off, picking up the stilt would be working on the Sabbath. If a man were using stilts to walk across a stream in normal conditions, he couldn't do it on a Sabbath because if he fell off, picking up the stilt would be working on t...

20:20 - 20:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Jesus first addresses the immediate accusation by referencing David's eating of the showbread (1 Samuel 21). Martin explains that this incident, where God's own ceremonial law was…

Jesus' approach to answering the Pharisees is compared to a good physician who first treats immediate symptoms and then addresses the deeper root causes of a disease, illustrating His method of defusing the immediate issue before tackling underlying problems.

Now, there are a lot of physicians who are in good positions. Thank God there are some good ones. But if you come to a good physician, and you're in bad shape, he's going to first of all try to meet your immediate need, and in that sense, treat your symptoms. But he's not going to stop there.

24:17 - 24:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The Sabbath was brought into being for the sake of man. That is, with reference to man's good to promote his well-being, to aid the highest realization of his most noble potential.

The principle 'the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath' is paralleled with Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 11:9 that 'the man was not made for the woman, but the woman for the man,' to illustrate the divine order of creation and purpose.

And you find, you find a parallel in 1 Corinthians 11.9 when Paul is discussing the roles of men and women. You remember this statement? The man was not made for the woman, but the woman for the man.

40:17 - 40:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The sabbath was meant to be a boon or a blessing to man not a burden. It was not a day taken from man by God in an exacting spirit but a day given by God in mercy to man. God's holiday to his subjects.

A quotation from A.B. Bruce's 'The Training of the Twelve' summarizes Christ's teaching on the Sabbath as a boon and blessing, not a burden, reinforcing the idea that it was God's gift to man.

Even the mosaic sabbath with its intensified regulations suited to that economy that God calls the economy of spiritual childhood where there needed to be more rules and regulations, even in spite of that it was still made for man and not man. For the sabbath it was made to promote his highest interest and to serve his ultimate good. Listen to the beautiful summary of this part of the statement of our Lord from A.B. Bruce's

45:18 - 45:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The sabbath was meant to be a boon or a blessing to man not a burden. It was not a day taken from man by God in an exacting spirit but a day given by God in mercy to man. God's holiday to his subjects.

The original Sabbath in Eden is described as a blessing for Adam, even in his unfallen state, allowing him to pause from labor and soak in God's glory, illustrating the Sabbath's purpose for man's highest good.

So when God said in it, I will do no work neither your servants neither your animals that was for the blessing of man. Even as the original sabbath in Eden that creation ordinance was for the blessing of Adam. Even in his unfallen state as he fulfilled his God given tasks he would need every recurring seventh day to pause from his normal labors not to confess sin not to mourn the spirit of man. Not to mourn the spiritual declension of his heart but to soak in as it were an intensified awareness of the greatness and the glory of his God.

46:54 - 47:36 Read in full sermon

The point: View the Lord's Day as a wonderful gift from a gracious God, not as an expression of spiritual tyranny.

An anecdote about a church member, Mr. Spence, who said he would 'make one just to keep my sanity' if God didn't mandate a Sabbath, illustrates the perspective of welcoming the Sabbath as a gracious gift and a day of rest and worship.

I shall never forget when Mr. Spence, and he's not with us, so I can say it in his absence and he'll not be embarrassed. Back a few years ago, when the controversy about the Sabbath erupted from some people in other quarters, I remember he came to me and he said, Pastor, I don't understand all this controversy about the Sabbath. He said, I for the life of me can't, I can't figure it out.

59:52 - 60:12 Read in full sermon

The point: See the Lord Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath, not to abolish it, but to purify and elevate it.

Christ's Lordship over the Sabbath is compared to His Lordship over marriage and labor, where He doesn't abolish God's gifts but purifies, elevates, and gives them back to us, 'soaked in His blood and throbbing with the life of His Spirit'.

He purifies them and elevates them and gives them back to us soaked in His blood and throbbing with the life of His Spirit. Isn't that what He does with the gift of marriage?

61:30 - 61:41 Read in full sermon