Another Sabbath Encounter: Man with Withered Hand

Driving home: The word for accuse is not a general word for informal accusation where you might say to someone don't accuse me of that. But it's the very word which by its etymology and its general use means to accuse formally before …

Martin contrasts casual bird watching with the intense, scrutinizing watch of the Pharisees, emphasizing their continuous, hostile observation of Jesus.

Now again, this word for watching him, both as to its meaning and its tense, does not mean they were simply there watching. Like you might sit in the backyard bird watching. You know, just sort of enjoying the birds and looking around. But they were continually watching.

16:11 - 16:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The only place in the Gospel records where anger of this kind is attributed to Christ is here in this passage. In Mark 10 and verse 14 a lesser form of indignation is recorded.

Martin vividly describes the instantaneous and complete restoration of the man's hand, making it as healthy as the other, to highlight Jesus' omnipotent power.

their silence has been the response and now Jesus deliberately looks around and he sees that look of holy anger in the eye as well as perhaps the pathos and the grief of his heart manifesting itself in his countenance. And now the word of Jesus that said stand forth in the midst now comes to him very simply stretch out the hand stretch out the hand that's what Jesus said to him now what was the response of the man with the withered hand? 5b and he stretched it forth and his hand was restored Mark, Matthew tells us in Matthew 12, 13 it was restored like as the other. Think of this Jesus says st...

37:01 - 38:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not let pride and the fear of losing face prevent you from owning your sin and seeking God's mercy.

Martin compares a newborn's sensitive flesh and twitching response to a light feather to a once-sensitive conscience, illustrating how sin hardens the heart over time.

we can't find fault with this character he hasn't even broken our silly little laws but he exposes us let's get rid of him that's why any holy man or woman the scripture says will suffer with Christ am I speaking to someone today who has all kinds of so called intellectual objections to the gospel all kinds of so called objections no no my friend you're just like the Pharisees your sense of morality is all twisted you can be shocked that a man is healed on the Sabbath day without the putting forth of a hand without the picking up of a bed or the speaking of a word and yet you can plot murder o...

61:51 - 63:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Fear a hard heart more than anything else in life, and run to Christ who can give you a new heart of flesh.

Martin compares a heart hardened by sin to a stonemason's hand with thick calluses, so insensitive that a white-hot nail would not cause a twitch, emphasizing the loss of conscience.

the nerve ending so sensitive in that baby flesh some of you once had a heart and a conscience like that the slightest stroke of wrong and you felt the nerve endings of conscience twitching do you know what's happened to your heart it's like the hand of a man who's been a stone mason for 50 years it's developed one layer of callus after another until there are people living today with calluses so thick that you could take a white hot nail and put it in a gas stove and place it on a callus and they wouldn't twitch all feeling is gone and I tell you dear people the thing you ought to fear more t...

63:19 - 64:48 Read in full sermon