Sabbath Controversy #1: Expostion

Introduction: The Sabbath Controversy in Mark's Gospel

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, June 10th, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 Now let us turn together to the second chapter of the gospel according to Luke. Luke, Mark, I was thinking ahead that I was going to say to those visiting with us, we don't want you to think that Mark is the only gospel that we believe is inspired, that we have a practice of reading through the New Testament consecutively in our Lord's Day morning worship hour, and in the providence of God we have come to read through consecutively, while at the same time I am preaching my way through, of course at a much slower rate, the same gospel record. And so we come to Mark's gospel, chapter 2, and verse 23. Mark 2 and verse 23. Speaking. The word of our Lord, Mark writes, And it came to pass that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful?

1:27 And he said unto them, Did you never read what David did when he had need and was hungry? He and they that were with him? How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the showbread which it is not lawful to eat, save for the priests, and gave also to them that were with him? And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, so that, or with the consequence that, the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

2:12 Now let us plead with God that he who gave us his word will now give us understanding as we study it together. Our Father, those of us who labor in the word and in doctrine are continually made aware that you alone can give understanding in your word. Amen. Amen.

2:39 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. There are times when that awareness comes home to us with a pressure and a reality bordering on spiritual pain, when we labor for hours over a passage and still have so little light.

2:55 Yet we thank you that when we do search for your truth as for hid treasure, and lift up our voice for understanding, you do hear our cry. And we therefore pray that this morning as together, we plead for light and help in our study of this portion of your word. You would send your spirit to us so to illuminate the text. When we leave, we shall know that we have heard your voice speaking to us in the scriptures.

3:29 Come to us, our Father, and subdue every thought and bring it captive to Jesus Christ, the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:45 And we come this morning to examine the fourth incident in this section of Mark's gospel, in which the actions of our Lord and his disciples precipitate the questions and the opposition of the Pharisees. You'll remember that we've underscored again and again in recent weeks that the organizing principle of chapter 2 and then spilling over into chapter 3 to verse 6 of that chapter is that Mark has taken...

4:14 is that Mark has taken... is that Mark has taken...

4:15 taken incidents from the life of our Lord's Galilean ministry that precipitated the opposition of the Pharisees and of the scribes. Now in the particular incident read 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 his 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 to be forgiven. He didn't need doctors but only sick people and that he had come not to call the righteous but sinners to himself. 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 pass it on to the new and pass it on to the new. And 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 pass it on to the new. Or put the new wine of new covenant blessing

5:41 into the old wineskins 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 something glorious about himself and his mission, so would the incident read in your hearing this morning regarding this matter of the covenant of the Lord. The conduct of the disciples on a given Sabbath day. This incident centers around the conduct of our Lord and his disciples with reference to the Sabbath. And there are recorded in the Gospels no fewer than six such incidents of Sabbath activity by our Lord and his disciples which precipitated tremendous opposition from the Pharisees. In five of them Christ himself is the offender in the eyes of the religious leaders. And his great offence was that he had the temerity according to their rules to break the Sabbath by healing on that day. In this sixth incident it is the disciples who are the offenders because while taking a walk through a field of

7:01 standing grain on the Sabbath day they had a little snack and that snack broke the Sabbath brought forth this tremendous expression of opposition from the Pharisees. Now, without any further introduction, let's seek to understand and lay to heart the teaching of the passage before us. And we are first of all directed in verse 23 to the activity of Jesus and his disciples. The activity of Jesus and his disciples.

The Activity of Jesus and His Disciples

7:33 It came to pass that he, that is the Lord Jesus, was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields and his disciples began as they went to pluck the ears. Now, whatever the activity of our Lord and his disciples was, it occurred on a Jewish Sabbath day. Sometime during that day, our Lord and his disciples are making their way through a field of standing grain. And you'll remember from your knowledge of the parable of the sower that there were paths alongside and often through these grain fields.

8:16 Remember the seed that fell on the wayside and was trampled underfoot and the birds of the air then came and plucked it up. So here's the picture, our Lord in the companionship of his disciples is walking through this footpath either alongside of or through the midst of a field of standing grain, probably of wheat or of barley. Now I'll not weary you with all the stuff that is written by the commentators trying to prove that it was wheat time harvest or barley time harvest, and frankly it makes no difference whatsoever in our understanding of the passage. But it wasn't corn as we now know it.

8:59 And some of the old versions say the corn fields and you picture big stalks of corn, and them taking off an ear of corn and rubbing that between their hands. No, it was grain, whether of wheat or barley. And you know when grain comes to its ripeness, there is a head of that grain. And as they were walking through the fields, they reached out and plucked off some of those heads of grain.

9:22 And then according to Luke 6 and verse 1, they then rubbed the grain between their hands to get off the outer shell, the husks. And then they probably, though the text does not say this, but in all likelihood, they probably cut those grains in their hands and slightly blew upon it to blow the chaff away. And then they began to eat it. And they had on that Sabbath day an excellent health food snack of raw, unsalted, organically grown, natural high fiber food.

9:55 Well, that's what they did. It was organically grown, raw. Raw, unsalted, natural high fiber food. Now, they were not stealing when they did that.

10:08 For according to the Old Testament law in Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25, it was perfectly legitimate for them to take some of those little ears of grain and to use them for food. Deuteronomy chapter 23 and verse 25. When you come into your neighbor's, standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not move a sickle unto your neighbor's standing grain. In other words, you can have a snack, but you can't reap a harvest on his field.

10:46 Now, that doesn't make it right for you to reach over your neighbor's fence and take an apple or two. These were particular laws given to the nation of Israel when they were constituted as a nation under the kingship and leadership of Jehovah God. So what the disciples were doing in terms of taking the grain was perfectly legitimate in the light of Old Testament law. Jesus apparently is not plucking the grain, rubbing and eating, but he's in companionship with his disciples.

The Vigorous Objection of the Pharisees

11:18 Obviously, he can see what they're doing, and he offers no word of reproof or rebuke for their actions. Now, that's what the text tells us about the activity of Jesus and his disciples. Simple, straightforward. Now then, we come in verse 24 to the vigorous objection of the Pharisees.

11:42 The vigorous objection of the Pharisees. And the Pharisees said unto him, and here they use an imperative, Look, man! That would be a current idiomatic expression. Look, man!

11:56 Behold! Why are they doing on the Sabbath day that which is...

12:02 is not lawful?

12:07 Now, it should be noted, first of all, that the determination of the Pharisees to hound and harass our Lord and his disciples was reaching a point of fanaticism. All throughout this chapter, wherever the Lord is found, there are these pesky Pharisees constantly watching him like a hundred eyes of a perpetual ubiquitous inquisition. The eyes are always there looking for something to pick on. The ears are straining to hear something that they can fasten upon and use as an occasion to oppose our Lord.

12:48 Now, they apparently either went before him like spies hiding in that field of standing grain or following close enough to observe what he is doing. And when their eyes see the disciples, reaching out as they walk along and plucking the ears of grain, rubbing them between their fingers, probably blowing away the chaff and then having a little innocent snack, now they feel they have an occasion to approach the Lord Jesus and to object to him because he does nothing to resist his disciples, to rebuke his disciples, or in any way to indicate his disapproval upon their activity. They behold them plucking and rubbing and eating and they are convinced that they have a case. So they come up to our Lord and with something that can be called nothing less than a haughty impudence they command him. Look, man, take note, you see, they're doing that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

13:58 Aren't you aware of the fact that they are breaking Sabbath law? And if you're the great upholder, upholder of the law of God, as you claim to be, how can you be silent? Here is open criminal activity against Jehovah, God of the covenant, and you, the upholder of the laws of your so-called Father in Heaven, and you do nothing? Look, man, why are your disciples doing that which it is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?

14:26 Now you say, frankly, Pastor, I don't understand how in the world 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.

14:37 And if you're 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. Now, in their efforts to interpret and to enforce the law of God, the Pharisees had become heir to a multitude of rabbinic traditions which actually made the law contemptible. And you don't need to go outside of the Bible to know that. If you'll just turn over to chapter 7 in the Gospel of Mark, here you have a key to understanding our present passage. The scribes, scribes and Pharisees have come up from Jerusalem and they noticed that the disciples of Jesus were not washing their hands in a certain way before they ate bread. Now, verse 3 of Mark 7.

15:49 The Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their hands diligently, eat not. Why? Holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, except they bathe themselves, they eat not.

16:04 And many other things, there are which they have received to hold. And they receive them to hold them, not from the law of God, but from the tradition of the elders from their official teachers. Verse 5, And the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Verse 7, In vain do they worship Me, teaching as their doctrines the prophets, the precepts of men.

16:39 You leave the commandment of God and hold fast the tradition of men. Now, if you see it four or five times in this one passage, the tradition of the elders, the tradition of men. And in the day in which our Lord ministered, the influence of the so-called great synagogue and two major schools of rabbinic thought had so permeated throughout the things, the thinking and the practice of the Jews of our Lord's day, as to make the Sabbath ordinance along with many other ordinances of God an insufferable burden. It's interesting that when we turn to the Old Testament, all of the legislation God gave about the seventh day of recurring rest and worship, that is the weekly Sabbath, there were other Sabbaths, festival days, but all that God says in Old Testament legislation is comprised in about a half a dozen brief passages. That's all. That's all. From the articulation of the Sabbath in Exodus chapter 20, Deuteronomy chapter 5, several other passages, only a half a dozen in number.

17:58 And that was all the legislation about the keeping of the weekly Sabbath. But you know what these elders, these rabbis had done? They took every phrase of the divine directive and they said, now when it says, thou shalt do no work, they took that statement and they said, now that means, and then they came up with a whole bunch of rules and regulations what it meant to work. Then under that set of rules and regulations, they took each one of those and they broke those down into further branches and twigs.

18:30 So that you had, as it were, the simple command of God, then you had the children, the children of their laws, and then those children had a bunch of grandchildren until every little statement of rabbinic tradition, I'm sorry, 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 the Pharisees. 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 shall do no labor?

19:33 Here's what it means. Here's one of the things that it meant. Let me read it. Women were forbidden to look in the mirror on the Sabbath because they might discover a white hair and attempt to pull it out, which would be a grievous sin because that would be laboring on the Sabbath day.

19:53 You say, how ridiculous! But that was one of their rules. Furthermore, a tailor might not go out with his needle on Friday night because he might forget to put it down before the Sabbath began. And if he were to take his needle out of the cloth on the Sabbath, he would be working on the Sabbath and he would be breaking the Sabbath law.

20:15 And I could go on and read incident after incident out of this summary. 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 stilts would be working on the Sabbath. You say, Pastor, that is ridiculous!

20:34 Nobody in his right mind. My friends, listen. These people took every one of those regulations seriously. And that's why Jesus said of these very people, they bind burdens upon men too heavy to be borne.

20:48 And what they were binding upon them was not the law of God, but their own silly traditions by the carloads. And they were bound to the law of God. And they had established, they had established that in keeping the Sabbath law, there must be no plucking because that was harvesting. And God says you shall not harvest on the Sabbath.

21:15 There should be no rubbing of a few grains because that was threshing. And there should be no threshing on the Sabbath. And there should be no even blowing of the husk away because that's winnowing. And there should be no winnowing on the Sabbath.

21:27 You see what they had done? They had utterly externally externalized the precepts of God. They had ridiculously particularized the precepts of God. And they had truly insensitized the precepts of God.

21:43 As though the only thing that mattered was keeping every little detail of regulation, even if men are hungry and can legitimately fill their hunger in a God-appointed way, that's no matter. The great end of life is to keep all of the minutia of the rules and regulations of the scribes and the Pharisees. So then, when we read in our text, come back now to Mark chapter 2, when we read in our text that they come up to the Lord and say in essence, Look man, why do your disciples do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath? The use of the word lawful had nothing whatsoever to do with God's law of Sabbath keeping. But with their own rules and regulations of Sabbath keeping. Do you see it? You can read through the entire Mosaic legislation about the Sabbath.

22:44 Those six basic passages and there's nothing in the letter or the Spirit that would condemn hungry disciples gleaning a few grains for a health food snack in the middle of the Sabbath. Particularly when they were probably on their way from one place of ministry to another. And the key to understanding the text is our understanding of the words, Why do your disciples that which is not lawful on the Sabbath? In other words, they were doing what is unlawful, not in the face of God's law, but their own stupid, silly, ridiculous, gnat-straining, camel-swallowing regulations. Alright, do you see that? Alright, having looked at the activity of our Lord and the disciples and then the opposition and question of the Pharisees, now thirdly, we come to the answer of our Lord. The answer of our Lord, verses 25 to 28.

Jesus's Answer: Addressing the Immediate and Deeper Issues

23:51 And as we approach the passage, I want you to notice that as with the question of fasting, our Lord first of all addressed the immediate question in order to defuse the issue, and then He addressed the deeper issues that lay beneath the surface which must be reckoned with if they are really to resolve the problem. You see, it's like a good physician. Now there are a lot of physicians who are in good positions. Thank God there are some good ones.

24:21 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. Once he gets your fever down and gets you functioning, he wants to go back to causes and treat the roots of that disease if at all possible. Now that's exactly what Jesus did, you remember, with the fasting question.

24:48 He answered their immediate question, why don't your disciples fast? He said, look, I'm the heavenly bridegroom. These are my attendants. Can they fast while they're in my presence?

24:59 Of course not. All right? The issue's settled. But now, he said, you're going to have problems with a lot of things I do with my disciples if you don't recognize the deeper issue.

25:08 And the deeper issue is, as the mediator of the new covenant, I have not come to put the new onto the old. The parable of the patch. I've not come to pour the new into the old. The parable of the wineskin.

25:21 He goes to the deeper issue. Now that's exactly what he does in his answer here. He answers the immediate question and then he addresses the deeper issues. All right?

The Immediate Question Answered: The Example of David

25:32 The immediate question answered, verses 25 and 6. And he said unto them, did you never read, and there's a little bit of sarcasm there, you experts in the law, you doctors of the Old Testament, did you never read, in all of your reading of the Old Testament, in all of your expertise in divine law, did you never read what David did, your great hero, when he had need and was hungry, he and they that were with him? How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the show bread, or the bread of presentation, which it is not lawful to eat, save for the priest, and gave also to them that were with him? What does our Lord do in answering the question? Well, basically this. He points these Pharisees to an incident in the life history of David, God's anointed king, an incident in which David's activity is in no way censured by God.

26:39 David's activity is one that is set before us in no other light, but that God was pleased with what he did. Now let's turn to that incident. They were familiar with it. They had read it, but they had never perceived its message in terms of this present situation.

26:58 Turn back to 1 Samuel. Turn back to 1 Samuel 21. If we're to understand how our Lord answered the immediate question, we've got to get the facts of this incident clearly fixed in our minds. David has just fled from the court of Saul with the help of Jonathan, his bosom friend.

27:21 Then came David to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest, and there is a problem. Mark says Abiathar, Ahimelech, and there are all kinds of answers set forth to resolve that problem. I'll not go into it. I'll simply mention that I'm fully aware of the problem, and I've read pages and pages and pages of the proposed answers, and frankly I'm not satisfied totally with any of them, but neither am I disturbed with an unresolved problem.

27:51 So we pass right over it. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, Why are you alone? And no man with you? And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king has commanded me a business, and has said unto me, Let no man know anything of the business whereabout I send you, and what I've commanded you.

28:11 And I've appointed the young men to such and such a place. Now therefore, what is under your hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatsoever there is present. And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread, if only the young men have kept themselves from women.

28:32 And David answered the priest and said of a truth, Women have been kept from us about these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was but a common journey. How much more than today shall their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there but the show bread that was taken from before Jehovah to put hot bread in the day that it was taken.

29:00 Now keep your finger on that passage and just turn back to Leviticus 24. That will be the only other Old Testament passage we need to read to understand our Lord's argument. The book of Leviticus chapter 24. In the directions for the conduct of the priest at the tabernacle, verse 5 of Leviticus 24.

29:23 You shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes, ten parts of an ephah shall be in one cake, and you shall set them in two rows, six upon a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. Then he shows how he is to put pure frankincense upon the row. Now notice verse 8. Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually.

29:46 It is in behalf of the children of Israel an everlasting covenant. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, that is the priest alone, and they shall eat it in the holy place. For it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute. Now let's put this all together.

30:08 Jesus says in answer to their question, Why are your disciples doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? That is, that does not line up with our rules and regulations. Jesus said, I'll answer you. Have you never read the incident about David?

30:25 When David was fleeing from Saul and came to the house of God, the tabernacle at Nob, and found the priest on a Sabbath day. For remember the priest was just at that moment removing the old bread he had just placed in the new. And that exchange was made every Sabbath. So there's even a subtle reference to the Sabbath in this incident.

30:47 It was on a Sabbath day that David had need and was hungry. As my disciples have need and are hungry, on a Sabbath day. And then what did David do? He found the priest with some loaves of bread in his hand.

31:01 He said, please give that for me and for my men. He said, I can't do that. This is not ordinary bread. This is the bread of presentation.

31:09 I've just brought in the fresh bread. I'm now removing the old bread. But only I and my fellow priest are warranted to eat it. Then he asked a question as to whether or not they were ceremonially clean with reference to the Sabbath.

31:25 To other dimensions of Old Testament Levitical purification. And when he declared that they were, then he gave them that bread. And they ate that bread. And there's not a word of rebuke that comes to the priest.

31:38 There's no indication that God was displeased that when David and his men gave thanks for that bread, it was divine provision for their need. Now our Lord says, didn't you ever read that incident? Didn't you ever read it? If you read it, do you understand the whole import of that incident?

31:54 Well, what is the import? Well, it's simply this. Follow closely now. Who gave the rule that only the priest was to eat the bread of presentation?

32:05 Who gave that rule? God or the scribes and Pharisees? Who made the rule that only priests are to eat the show bread? Who made the rule?

32:14 God did, didn't he? We read it in Leviticus. Aaron and his sons alone shall eat it. Now follow closely.

32:22 Almighty God in the ceremonial law had decreed that the show bread should be eaten only by the priest. Along comes David and his men in the service of God, the anointed of God, and he's hungry and he has need, Jesus says. What happens? God allows the suspension of one of his own ceremonial laws in order to meet this deep need of David and his men when they were hungry and they needed life to be sustained by bread.

33:01 Is God more concerned about his own ceremonies than the life and well-being of his servant? Yes or no? Why, of course not. His great concern is for the life of David and his servants.

33:16 That's a greater concern than maintaining meticulously every detail of his own ceremonial framework. So this is what Jesus is saying. Here's what he's saying. Oh, you stupid, silly Pharisees.

33:30 The scripture tells me answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceits and I'll answer you according to your folly. If it is perfectly proper for David to partake of show bread, bread that is not lawfully his according to God's ceremonial law, if God has the right to set aside his own ceremonies in order to propagate the well-being or promote the well-being of his servants and his creatures, then I have no problem with encouraging my disciples to break your silly, stupid, man-made rules about the Sabbath. You see the argument? God's own rules ceremonially can be suspended when man's well-being demanded it. Now if that's proper, how much more is it proper to fly in the face of your stupid, silly, man-made rules when the well-being of my disciples demands it?

34:39 They need nourishment as they accompany me in my preaching mission. Shall I deny them that nourishment in order to keep your silly, stupid rules? Never! Our Lord shut them up good with that passage, didn't he?

The Deeper Issue: Misconception of the Sabbath's Nature and Purpose

34:54 He answered the fools according to their folly, and he shut their mouth with his answer. Now then, do you see why our Lord must go to a deeper issue? If he doesn't, if he simply stops with answering that immediate question, it won't be five minutes before they're going to come up with another question about another silly rule that Jesus and his disciples have broken. So what does he do?

35:28 Our Lord now addresses the deeper issues in verses 27 and 28. And the deeper issues are two. He says to these Pharisees basically two things. Number one, you have a total misconception of the nature and purpose of the Sabbath.

35:47 Verse 27, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And secondly, he says you are pitifully ignorant of the divinely appointed legislator of the Sabbath. And it's not you and your rabbis, it is me, son of man, Lord of the Sabbath. So he goes to the two deeper issues and says you must, you Pharisees, understand the nature and purpose of the Sabbath, and you must understand the rightly constituted legislator of the Sabbath.

36:27 All right, let's look at those things in as much detail as time permits this morning. Verse 27, and he said unto them, we have a positive statement, the Sabbath was made for man, and then a negative, not man for the Sabbath. Now it's only in the Gospel of Mark that we have this statement. Jesus being Lord of the Sabbath is repeated in the parallel passages in Matthew and Luke.

37:00 But it's in Mark's Gospel, and I think it's interesting. The Gospel that we have every reason to believe was composed with a particular eye to the Gentiles at Rome, to a community totally detached from the more central nerves of Judaism. This statement is given, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Now let's look at those statements as they come before us.

37:34 The Sabbath was made, or more literally brought into being for the sake of man. That would be a perfectly proper rendering. The word made is a word that is not the standard word used for creation, but it is used of God's creative activity. In John 1.3, John 1.10, and Hebrews 11.3, the exact same form of this verb is used to describe creative activity. So we can translate it, the Sabbath was brought into being for the sake of man.

38:13 You Pharisees, stop and think for a minute. Every time you think of Sabbath, what do you think about? You don't think about man and his well-being. If you thought about man and his well-being, why would you be upset with my disciples?

38:30 They weren't having a feast. They weren't profaning the Sabbath. They were simply having a little health food snack from one point to another in keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest. But your attention is not on man.

38:45 Your attention is on your set of rules that surround the day of rest. He said you must understand this statement. 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.

39:09 The Sabbath is God's gift to man. And not, the negative statement, not, the verb understood, man was not brought into being for the sake of the Sabbath. In other words, the Sabbath did not exist as an entity before man was brought into being. God did not create a Sabbath and then fashion a man to fit the form of the Sabbath.

39:39 Oh, no. What God did was create a man. And then He fashioned a day of rest perfectly suited to the man. See the difference now?

39:49 You see the contrast? You don't have the Sabbath brought into being and man constructed to fit into the form of the Sabbath. No, God's order is, first of all, to make man. And having made man, to construct a day of rest that is perfectly suited to man's well-being and man's highest good.

40:14 That's the cryptic statement of our Lord. And you find a parallel in 1 Corinthians 11-9 when Paul is discussing the roles of men and women. Remember this statement? The man was not made for the woman, but the woman for the man.

40:35 Same contrast. If we're to understand male-female roles, we must understand that according to Genesis 2, God first of all made the man. There was no helper answering to his needs. So He formed a woman to suit the needs of the man.

40:53 The woman exists with equal dignity as an image-bearer, but in terms of her functional identity, she was made for the man. Not the reverse. It wasn't as though God made the woman first, and then beholding her needs, constructed the man to answer to her needs. That's a reversal of the divine order.

41:14 And neither was there an equality in terms of the creative design. So all of the present thinking in this area utterly violates the canons fixed by God in the order of creation. Now we ask the question, when did God make or bring the Sabbath into being for man? And your mind almost inescapably goes where?

41:41 Right back to Genesis chapters 1 and 2. It's hard to resist the pressure that is upon our minds by hearing the words, the Sabbath was born, the Sabbath was brought into being for the sake of man and not man for the sake of the Sabbath. For when we go back to the early chapters of Genesis, what do we find in the Biblical record? This is what we find.

42:09 Verse 27 of chapter 1, God created man in His own image. In the image of God created He him. Male and female created He them, and God blessed them, and God said to them. Verse 31, And God saw everything He had made, and behold, it was very good.

42:29 And there was evening and morning the sixth day. All of creation is completed, and man, the crowning act of God's created work, is himself created and set down in God's world. Then we read verse 1 of chapter 2, And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made, and He sabbathed on the seventh day.

42:58 He rested. He sabbathed. That's the simple meaning of that Hebrew verb. He sabbathed on the seventh day from all His work which He had made, and God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because in it He rested.

43:15 He sabbathed from all His work which God had created and made. You see, the blessing and the hallowing of the seventh day came where? Before or after the creation of man. When man was created, the sabbath was brought into being for man.

43:38 You don't find the sabbath made on the sixth day, and then man on the seventh to fit the sabbath. And He says to these Pharisees, Until you come to grips with the fundamental significance and purpose of the sabbath, you'll never be able to see through the stupidity and the spiritual crippling nature of all of your silly rules and regulations. You must come to grips with this fact that the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath. But someone says that's only an inference that it was brought into being at creation.

44:20 I say it's a very strong and compelling inference, but even if we were to yield the point and say, well, the sabbath came into being in terms of the sabbath that Christ is speaking about in the context of the first century, that Jewish sabbath came into being in conjunction with the whole Mosaic economy. Just prior to, and then in the event of the giving of the Decalogue and the fourth commandment, and then that half a dozen or so stipulations about the Jewish seventh day of rest, well, even that sabbath was brought into being for the sake of man, to serve man's highest interest and promote his good. It was of the Jewish sabbath that the prophet Isaiah says in chapter 58, call the sabbath of the light, the holy of the Lord. Now does that sound like miserable bondage? No. 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.

45:40 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 classic work on the training of the twelve.

45:59 The key to all Christ's teaching on the sabbath, therefore, lies in his conception of the original design of that divine institution. The sabbath said he was made for man and not man for the sabbath. In other words, his doctrine was this. The sabbath was meant to be a boon or a blessing to man, not a burden.

46:23 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. All legislation enforcing its observance, having for its end to ensure that all should really get the benefit of this blessing, that no man should rob himself and still less his fellow creatures of this gracious blessing. So when God said, in it you 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 spiritual declension of his heart, but to soak in as it were an intensified awareness of the greatness and the glory of his God. He might become so busy intending the garden and keeping it that he would not hear to the same degree the voice of God speaking in all of his creation. And on each recurring sabbath,

47:50 Adam in Edenic bliss would stand back and as it were turn up the volumes of God's creation. Speaking of his glory, his pupils as it were would dilate and he'd drink in the wonder of it to go forth with renewed vigor to serve Jehovah God who made him and placed him in such a beautiful and blessed state. And when that sabbath was given in its mosaic context with its particular regulations, it was still a sabbath that was made for man and not man for the sabbath. Do you see it?

The Deeper Issue: Ignorance of the Sabbath's Legislator

48:31 The Pharisees didn't understand that. And because they didn't understand it, they were taken up constantly with their rules and regulations and binding burdens too heavy to be borne. But then I must hasten very quickly now to touch the last strand of our Lord's argument as he addresses the deeper issues. He says you Pharisees need to understand first of all the fundamental nature and purpose of the sabbath that was made for man.

49:02 And then he says you need to understand who the appointed legislator of the sabbath truly is. You've set yourself up as the legislators. Your rabbis and your elders have passed down their traditions and the various rabbinical schools have all of their trappings. Do this, do that, don't do this, don't do the other.

49:23 But listen, who in the world do you and they think they are to be legislating the details of the holy day? Notice the text. So that the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath. Now that connective word so that is a strong word indicating an inescapable logical consequence, a deduction that is inevitable.

49:50 If the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath then it follows by inescapable deduction and logic that the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath. And in the original the word Lord is thrown forward for emphasis. We might translate it this way. So that Lord is the Son of Man even of the sabbath.

50:15 Now what's that connection? And I confess I have labored hour upon hour upon hour in seeking to answer that question. I set forth what I believe to be the answer according to my present light and the key is this term, Son of Man, Son of Man. Even so the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath.

50:41 Now what is that title Son of Man referred to? Remember a few weeks ago? It takes us right back to Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. Son of Man title is embedded in Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14.

51:04 I saw in the night visions and behold there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a Son of Man. He comes with the clouds of heaven. He is deity. But he is like unto a Son of Man.

51:20 There is humanity. The title Son of Man points with reference to the constitution of the person of Messiah that he is the God-man. There comes with clouds one like unto Son of Man. That's the identity of his person.

51:38 But now notice his function. And he came even to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him. There was given him, now notice, dominion and glory and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

52:07 Title Son of Man points us to what? A divine human being. A universal kingdom given to him and unending reign over that kingdom. Now you say, Pastor, how in the world does all that fit in with the Sabbath question?

52:26 Well, put on your thinking cap for another two minutes and try to follow the argument. Son of Man, God-man. A kingdom. A kingdom over all nations and all realms.

52:38 A kingdom that will never end. All authority given unto him in heaven and in earth. Now go back to verse 27. The Sabbath was made for man.

52:50 Made for mankind in the original creation ordinance. It was a day made for the good of mankind. It was a day made for the good of Israel in its peculiar mosaic expression. And if it is something made for man and the Son of Man has dominion over all men, why if he's Lord over all men, he's Lord over everything given to men.

53:20 Therefore he's Lord of the Sabbath. For the Sabbath was made for man. The Sabbath is a gift given to man. Well you see if he's Lord over man, he's Lord over all the gifts given to man.

53:32 And as Lord over the gift of the Sabbath, he is its only rightful legislator. That's his argument. If the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, then the Son of Man as the one who has entire dominion over all men, he is the Lord, the sovereign, the rightful king over the Sabbath. You Pharisees think you have the right to take the Sabbath law, to stretch it, to overlay it with your silly rules, and to burden it down with your regulations, to impose upon me and my disciples the sum total of all of your legislation?

54:15 Oh no! I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. I gave it at creation as a gracious gift to mankind. I reintroduced it in the wilderness and gave it to my people with peculiar surroundings and legislation suited to their situation in the history of redemption.

54:36 I etched it in the tables of stone as one of those ten words summarizing man's moral duty and responsibility. And now as the Lord of the Sabbath, I am tearing away all of the encrustments, you Pharisees have put around it. I'm peeling off all the layers of old crusty leather with which you have buried the glory of the Sabbath. And furthermore, as Lord of the Sabbath, I will take into my tomb all that is distinctly Jewish and shadowy and typical in that Sabbath, and I will rise from the dead and leave all that was peculiar to the Jewish economy, the Jewish economy in connection with the Sabbath. I'll leave it in my tomb. And as the Lord of the Sabbath, I'll come forth on the first day of the week to change the day of celebration from the seventh to the first, to change the primary focus from creation to redemption, and to surround that day with all the glory of my own redemptive work for sinners. And people want to tell me that that's legalism and a burden.

55:53 To see my blessed Lord as Lord of the Sabbath, Lord, to take the day originally made for man, the day wonderfully given to man in his innocence, the day marked out for man as a sinner to show him his sin as well as to be a boon and a blessing to him in the midst of a sinful world, a burden that the Lord of the Sabbath should take upon himself all of the guilt we had incurred for taking to ourselves in folly of self-destruction the notion that we can live every day to please ourselves and utterly disregard God's claims over us, to call it a burden that he should also take with him into that tomb as he took upon himself at the cross everything that was shadowy and typical in that Jewish Sabbath and to leave it buried in his tomb and to come forth on the first day of the week with this Christian Lord's Day Sabbath, the day in which he sends his spirit down upon his church, the day in which he meets with his people, the day in which his apostles by divine direction

57:20 guided the early Christians to meet in appreciation of that wonderful gift of the Lord's Day Sabbath. Well, I submit that that, I believe, is the meaning and significance of our Lord's words. Oh, how he stuck it to the Pharisees that day. He said, I'll take care of your question.

57:42 Why do my disciples do what you call unlawful on the Sabbath? He said, I'll take care of that, dispose of that very quickly. Have you never read about David? There, one of God's laws is suspended in the interest of the well-being of man.

Application: Embracing the Lord's Day as a Gracious Gift

57:58 If God's own law can be suspended, his ceremonial law, how much more will I count it a privilege to suspend your silly man-made laws that my disciples might have their needs met? But, oh, you Pharisees, you need to come to grips with a deeper issue. You understand neither the nature and intent of the day of rest nor the proper legislator of the day of rest. Let me say, by way of a final word of application, this has all been exposition.

58:28 I knew of no other way to do it, dear people. I must be responsible in handling the word. And God willing, next week, we'll have almost pure application. But let me say this in closing.

58:39 Do you share the view of the Pharisees about the Lord's day of rest? Or do you share your Lord's view? Are you a Pharisee? Or are you a Christian, a Christ-wise Christian?

58:57 A Christ-one, with reference to your views of the appointed day of rest? Do you view it as a wonderful gift from a gracious God? Or do you view it as some kind of an expression of spiritual and personal tyranny that God should require one day in every recurring cycle of seven to be set apart from the normal labors, to be given, not to inactivity, but to a different kind of activity, the activity of physical and spiritual rest and refreshment and worship? It seems to me that it's a terrible indication of a state of the human heart that would resent having that privilege mandated by God. 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.

60:10 He said, I for the life of me can't figure it out. As far as I'm concerned, if God didn't mandate one, I'd make one just to keep my sanity. I'm so glad there's one day in the week when I can get up and see all the chores that need to be done around the house and all the unfinished business that sits on my desk and all the other things that press in upon me. How I thank God there's one day I can rise and know that God is pleased if I ignore all of it and give myself to seeking His face.

60:40 Give myself to praising Him in company with His people. Give myself to time with my family and with the people of God. Frankly, Pastor, I don't understand the mentality that regards it a burden. If God didn't mandate it, I'd make one to keep my own sanity.

60:56 What was he saying in that? He was saying he understood the principle the Sabbath was made for man. Do you? Do you welcome that returning day?

61:08 Do you welcome it as God's gracious gift? And do you see the Lord Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath? Lord not to abolish it? There's not a shred of evidence that He's Lord of the Sabbath to abolish it.

61:26 In redemption He doesn't abolish God's gifts to men. 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? The gift of marriage is given back to us in His blood and throbbing with the life of His Spirit.

61:51 So we have Christian marriages that are nothing less than little pictures of Christ in His church. Labor is a gift of God. He is not Lord of labor to destroy it, but to ennoble it, so that we now work as unto Him who loved us and died for us. And we know that it's spiritual service.

62:14 So with the Sabbath, He's Lord of the Sabbath, not to abolish it, but to give it to us, may I say it reverently, dripping with His own precious blood and throbbing with the life of His Spirit. Oh, may we receive His gift and bless Him for it. I trust God will write about it on our hearts, this portion of His Holy Word, Jesus' sermon from a field of standing grain, has much to say to us this day. Let us pray.

62:55 Oh, our Father, how our hearts run out in praise and adoration, in worship and glad acclaim to You as our great and gracious God. We read again and again in Your Word that You are good, we thank You for Your goodness manifested in bringing the Sabbath into being for us as men, that in Your perfect knowledge of our constitution and of Your purpose for us, that You gave us this gracious gift. We thank You that our Lord Jesus is Lord of this day, and we delight to acclaim Him as our Lord and bow to His Lordship with respect, to this day, and how we keep this day for our good and for Your glory. Oh, Father, we confess that at times following the thread of thought in Your Word is not easy to follow the tracks of the Holy Spirit in Scripture, but as we've labored to do so this morning, help us, give us understanding, and then give us grace to run in the way of Your commandments. For those whose hearts rise up in rebellion at the thought of a day set apart to You, oh, may that very sense of irritation be an additional means to show them their lost and rebellious state

64:25 and be used of You to draw them to Christ and to His salvation. Seal then Your Word to our hearts, and may we accept with renewed spiritual intelligence from Your hand the gift of this precious Lord's Day Sabbath, and spend it to Your glory and to our good. For Jesus' sake we pray. Amen.