Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, I read a story that transpired a number of years ago, perhaps over a century already now, that in Russia, there was a priest in a church who began to hand out candies to the children who would memorize various scriptural passages. And there was just an increased attendance, seemingly overnight, to this which he had begun to do, this practice, And there was particularly a young boy, faithful and memorizing and reciting his scriptures with piety. And as soon as he pocketed his candy, he'd run off to the hillside and eat his candy alone. And this priest took a liking to this boy and persuaded him to attend the church school. And of course, this boy found this quite preferable because in attending the school, his parents, could no longer require him to do his daily chores. And by offering other prizes, this priest managed to, over time, have this young man, with a brilliant mind, be able to memorize all four of the Gospels. But what happened later in this young man's life as he grew older The name of the man was Nikita Khrushchev, the former communist czar. As though he had mouthed the words of all of the gospels, had learned them in his mind, his process of thinking, yet he came to declare when the cosmonauts that were sent up did not see God. that he declared God to not exist. So all these memorized scripture, all this activity that he did even in his youth, rather than having meaning and life for Christiaph, actually will serve to condemn him. He knew the words, he knew the practice to some degree of spewing back in recited memory, but he knew nothing of the life, the rest that comes with knowing God in our hearts. I could perhaps today on unpacking the commandment dealing with the Sabbath or the Lord's Day. Set before us some ideas about how to keep the Sabbath. Each of your own families probably have your own traditions in some respect. But if we don't understand the heart of what Jesus is saying here in the New Testament passage about He being Lord of Sabbath, and the true understanding of what Sabbath is pointing us to, we have not really profited from understanding what the Sabbath is and keeping it to the Lord. And so today, I want to try to do that from what Jesus has said here in Matthew 12, and I want to simply read verse eight again, although I want to look at it in context. Here, Matthew 12, eight says, for the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day? Let me do that in light also of Lord's Day 38, question and answer 103. What does God require in the fourth commandment? First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools be maintained, and that I, especially on the Sabbath, that is on the day of rest, diligently frequent the house of God to hear his word, to use the sacraments publicly to call upon the Lord and contribute to the relief of the poor as becomes a Christian. Secondly, that all the days of my life I cease from my evil works and yield myself to the Lord to work by his Holy Spirit in me and thus begin in this life the eternal Sabbath. And so our theme is Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath day. And I want to look at this in two perspectives from the passage in particular we have read. First, I want to look at the actions of Jesus with the backdrop of what was happening in Jesus' day with the Pharisees. And then secondly, I want to take this teaching of Jesus concerning the Sabbath day look at it in a broader way and then how it applies also to ourselves today. So in order to put this passage that we read this morning in its context and the actions and teaching of Jesus in proper perspective, what we need to really understand is the attitude, the mindset, the thinking of those who are going to confront Jesus in this passage in Matthew 12, and this passage along with other events surrounding it are occurring in all of the Gospels. At the time of Jesus, we well know, and children, you know as well, that the Jewish people, though they had been set apart by God for worship of God alone and to be a demonstration to the nations around them of this service, had actually, at least in the leadership, come to corrupt the law of God. And Jesus came teaching these things and he basically said to them, you have made the law of my father a burden rather than a delight. Now it's true that the law in some sense is the agent of the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin. That is true. But even as we read the law this morning, it has come to us as a covenantal, faithful proclamation of the one who delivers his people, I am the Lord your God, so live this way. And that includes the fourth commandment. Jesus said of the scribes and Pharisees, you sit in Moses' seat. All therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, he said to the people, that observe and do. So in other words, yes, they're teaching you something of the law. That's your calling to do. But don't you do after their works, for they say and they do not do. They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born, lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all they do they do to be seen of men. Are we here this morning because we delight in the law of God and we want to be in his presence, we want to hear his voice, are we here to be seen of men? Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you pay tithe, you even go beyond. the law, so to speak, of mint and anise and cumin, but you have omitted the weightier matters of the law. Judgment, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done and not leave the other undone. Is our focus as we go out to serve into this week going to be what Jesus says is the essence of the law. Judgment, mercy, and faith. You read of this in Matthew 23, 23, and it's our calling as those who have said, Jesus is our Lord. And this happened with the fourth commandment that we're considering this morning among this religious people as well. We saw it happening in the previous commandments, the third commandment, The Jews would swear, but they'd be careful how they swore an oath and so on. And now they're corrupting also this fourth commandment. And there were typically two kinds of distortions of the law that were transpiring in Jesus' day. The first was commonly practiced by the common person who was rather not religious. He was trying to get ahead in this world. He saw the business that could be done on the other six days of the week, and when it came to this Sabbath day, he also saw dollar signs that could be made that he's not able to do if he had kept it devoted to the Lord. And to him, in this way, the Sabbath had also become a burden. Because he couldn't do what he wanted to do. He couldn't pursue his financial desires, his worldly aspirations. He had people to meet, he had deals to make, he had a house to build. This is one of the things the prophets often would speak of. Amos said, hear this, O you that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, saying, when will the new moon be gone, and we may sell corn, and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat? In other words, the people couldn't wait for these solemn feast days, which were given by God for the people to, by faith, rest and delight. and they saw them as a burden because their rest and delight they were pursuing was in fleshly things, not in God. There was a motive in the hearts of these people for selfish gain because they wished Sabbath would completely be soon and over with. Isaiah, the prophet, mentions many of the same things. And you remember, children, no doubt, Nehemiah, when he's restoring things and he's bringing about reformation in the nation. He saw that some in Judah were still treading the wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in their sheaves and lading the donkeys with wine and grapes and all manner of burdens. And they were bringing them into Jerusalem, the city, on the Sabbath day. And we read, there dwelt there men of Tyre also who brought fish, all manner of wares. They sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. And Nehemiah, the reformer, was looking at the law of God and he's saying, what I see these people doing and you participating in their activities are transgressing God's law. What evil thing is this that you do, profaning the Sabbath day? Did not our fathers do this? And did not God bring all this evil on this and this city? And yet you will bring more wrath on Israel for profaning the Sabbath. Why were the children of Israel in exile? For not believing God, trusting His promise regarding Sabbath. As many years as they neglected Sabbath, he was going to bring them 70 years into exile. And as these people, even after the admonition of Nehemiah gathered, listen to how strong Nehemiah prohibits them. Why do you lodge without the wall? If you do it again, I'm going to lay hands on you. From this time forth, they did no more come on the Sabbath. Well, in some of the songs we sang this morning, and if you read the Old Testament, the day of rest, the day of Sabbath, was particularly to be a day that set apart the children of Israel from the rest of the nations around them. But when the heart of the Sabbath which I've been trying to emphasize, perhaps subtly, a day of rest and delight, when that faded away, even the outward part of the Sabbath soon followed in its fading away. And the same is true today. If we don't understand the heart of the Sabbath and truly come to rest in Christ, in God, and delight in Him, And as we gather together as our catechism unpacked for us, yes, it's a day we give to the causes of the ministry of the gospel, we maintain the schools, we come to frequently hear the word of God and use the sacraments, call on the name of the Lord, contribute to the relief of the poor, but more centrally, it's ceasing from my evil works and yielding myself to him and doing the works he calls me to do. Once we lose the heart of the Sabbath in our hearts and our minds, we will soon see the actual practice fade away as well. Among the Israelites, this was understood, as you read in Exodus 31, It was understood this was to be a distinguishing mark. Listen and interpret these words as you hear them. Exodus 31, the Lord speak to Moses saying, speak also to the children of Israel saying, verily my Sabbath you shall keep. It is a sign. between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." The Sabbath was a distinguishing mark, a sign, just you could say as circumcision in some respects, was a distinguishing mark that set them apart from the other nations. The Lord's day, a day in which we gather together now in the New Testament to remember our Lord's resurrection is a distinguishing mark that we gather, not with our eyes focused on all the material gain we could get, but we focus with delight on the reality our Savior, our Lord is risen indeed. He is our Lord. And we gather by faith, not needing to pursue the things of this world for an earthly gain, because we have His promise. He will provide for us. And from this rest, we go forth into this world to labor as unto Him. You continue in this reading in Exodus 31 of how strongly the Lord understood this command to be, even that those who would labor would be put to death. Now indeed, there are certain things in the Old Testament about Sabbath that were particularly relevant to the Jewish people as a theocracy, but there are certain aspects of this commandment that are permanent that as you read in Deuteronomy and also in Exodus are related to the very creation ordinance of God. God desires his creature even from Adam and Eve to have rested as he did from all his works. And God wants you and me to rest and delight in him. So this was the first way in which the law was minimized or broken. The second is more particularly in relation to these religious leaders of the Jews. And it manifested itself in a different way, though at the heart was the same problem. They did not take delight in and rest in the Sabbath. Rather, What they tried to do is, you realize with the other laws as well, they tried to spell out all the details of the law in order to sneak around or to squeeze by what the commandment actually was saying. And in doing so, what they did was laid on the people and themselves extreme burdens. They did not have a heart after the law and after God, but they imagined by keeping all these outward entrappings of the law, they somehow were more pleasing to God than others. Do you imagine you're sitting here this morning makes you more pleasing to God than others? We don't hear the lawnmowers, because it's not time for the grass to be mown, but maybe if we did, we would think, well, that person should be in church instead of mowing his lawn. How many times aren't we justifying ourselves if we've gone to church twice? And yet we miss the essence. We go about our lives, perhaps in areas of unbelief, of trusting God's Word, of promise, of disbelief, of distrust in what He's promised to be and to do for us. And we think we need to do something, and we're not resting and delighting in the Lord of Sabbath. These, in Jesus' day, had corrupted this commandment. They began to make additional laws or explanatory laws and oral traditions in addition to the plain law of God. These were done in particular at the time of the Babylonian captivity and the Mishnah, and they were writing down all different kinds of categories. Let me just give you a quick list of the different categories they had divided this law and studying it, writing all different kinds of detailed prescriptions. So there were laws concerning sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing wool, beading wool, dyeing wool, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying a knot, loosening a knot, sewing two stitches, ripping out two stitches, hunting a gazelle, slaughtering, slaying, Salting a hide, curing a skin, scraping a skin, cutting a skin, writing two letters, erasing to write two letters, building, pulling down, putting out a fire, building a fire, striking with a hammer, carrying objects from one place to another. You see the detail, the burden. And this is just a little one-minute, short explanation. of what their law had come to mean to them. And the Mishnah said, and this relates now more closely to what these Pharisees who were observing Jesus and his disciples to catch him are thinking about. He that rapes corn on the Sabbath to the quantity of a fig is guilty and plucking corn is reaping. Rubbing the corn is threshing. At times some have even said among these Jewish teachers to walk on grass on the Sabbath was forbidden because you would thresh it with your feet. You see how ludicrous the laws have become and the focus rather than rest and delight The Talmud, another writing of the Jewish rulers at the time of Jesus, said, When a woman rolls wheat to remove the husks, it's sifting. If she rubs the head of wheat, it's threshing. If she cleans off the side adherents, it's sifting out the fruit. And if she throws them up in her hand, it's winnowing. Now put this mindset, this teaching of the religious leaders that they had all been taught likely, and now put this in the context of what happened here on this day that these Pharisees see Jesus. These laws expanded on every area of life of do's and don'ts were a perversion of God's simple command. And so as we see these disciples and Jesus walking on their way to the synagogue, on the way to worship, on the Lord's Day, the Sabbath day, they encounter this group of the Pharisees. Now there's one thing you could say about the Pharisees is their desire of being there was not to learn wisdom, to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn mercy and judgment. But rather we read in the following part of this story, they came there to pass judgment. And we read the disciples were hungry on the way and they began to pluck ears of corn and began to eat. Now whether these disciples knew these traditions in detail like the Pharisees were not told, But the Pharisees confront Jesus saying, behold, your disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day. Now notice what Jesus does. He does not say to them, well, I didn't do it. He is here to communicate a message to the Pharisees so that they would rightly understand who he was and what they were doing. He could have also simply addressed these Pharisees and said, but that's your interpretation and the interpretation of your fathers about the Sabbath. My interpretation is different than yours. How many times do we do that? We either justify our own actions on Sabbath day or perhaps criticize other actions of others on the Sabbath day. But have we missed the heart? as Jesus is getting to here in this passage. What does Jesus do? He's going to probe the depth of these Pharisees' hearts to show that the truth of the commandments even are far greater than some external adherence to them. It gets to the heart of true worship, worshiping God in spirit and in truth. And when we do so from our hearts, the actions naturally will follow. And Jesus here is going to establish his right about the Sabbath. Theirs was according to the tradition of men, and Jesus is going to say to them, for the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Right after this meeting, we know that they went to the synagogue and there was a man there who had this withered hand and the Pharisees and scribes are gonna watch Jesus, what he's going to do. And you get the impression when you read Mark and Luke in the gospel that it could even be that they placed this man in the synagogue there to test Jesus what he would do. They knew Jesus went about doing good, even on the Sabbath. They were going to test what he would do on that day. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to the man, stand up. I'll ask you one thing, he says to the Jews. Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? And Jesus said, stretch forth your hand. And when he stretched it forth, it was whole as the other. This isn't a one time off for Jesus. We've heard his words. What about his actions? Here's a man who had his whole life, a withered hand, couldn't work, and now Jesus, on the Sabbath, heals him. Think about this woman who had been crippled 18 years. She was bent over, she couldn't straighten up, and Jesus immediately heals her And she praised God. And we read there, in that instance, the ruler of the synagogue became angry with Jesus in Luke 13 because he healed on the Sabbath. And the ruler of the synagogue said, there are six days to work. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath. In the following chapter, we find Jesus is again at the house of a chief Pharisee on the Sabbath day, a man who had a dropsy, and asked the question again, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? And when they could not answer him a word, he healed the man. And they were filled with madness. Again, when Jesus comes to the pool at Bethsaida, 38 years, Bethesda pool, No help. And Jesus comes and asks, will thou be made whole? Sir, I have no man when the water's troubled to put me in. And Jesus says, take up your bed and walk. And the man immediately being made whole on the Sabbath takes up his bed and walks through the streets. And the Jewish leaders ask, what are you doing on the Sabbath? The Jews were so angry, they were ready to kill Jesus. What was the man doing who Jesus had healed? Leaping and rejoicing in God. We see Jesus' words. and his actions demonstrate the truth of who he is and what he said. The son of man said over and over, particularly in the gospel of Mark, indicating not just simply that Jesus was a human man, but he's the son of man who is spoken of in Daniel. The deliverer, the one who is divinely man, is Lord even of the Sabbath. He has created the Sabbath. Now, listen to these words of Jesus and think about how that would have been met by this legalistic attitude of the Pharisees. If there was any point of Jesus' ministry that stirred the wrath of the Pharisees, it was on this point of the Sabbath. And part of it had to do with, he said, I am Lord even of the Sabbath. I am God. I created the Sabbath. I gave you the Sabbath. Not in the way you have treated my Sabbath, a burden, but a day of rest and delight. And I will show you from the scriptures how this is true. And that brings us to our second point, the teaching of Jesus. But let's first sing together from number 150. 150. ♪ Oh, my way ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave And be born anew, God, with grace. Well, we know from Jesus' actions Himself, He observed the Sabbath. He went to gather on the Sabbath day, which was His common practice. Even though He was the Son of God, He was Lord of Sabbath, He still observed the Sabbath. But even more than this, in an outward way, we can see that Jesus had mercy, showed kindness, and served on the Sabbath to the glory of God. And Jesus is going to use two examples here in this passage from Old Testament history to highlight for these legalistic Pharisees a better understanding of the Sabbath. And so Jesus said to them, have you not read about David when he was hungry? You remember children, David and his soldiers were hungry, and they were fleeing from Saul, and they came to the place where the showbread was, where the priest was caring for that bread. He went to the house of God, and he ate the showbread, Jesus says, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor the other men with him, but for the priests only. So they ate this bread, which normally was designated to the priests, but in this time of great need, out of mercy, this bread was given to them, lest they succumb in weakness to not having anything to eat. And Jesus is saying, in essence, to these Pharisees, you, by your traditions, transgress the law. You prohibit even the fulfilling of necessary things that you might keep a Sabbath of your imagination. And this has practical implications. It is said of the Jews when Antiochus Epiphanes came in to conquer the city of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, the Jews didn't do anything because they couldn't lift up arms to defend themselves. That's how ridiculously far they legalized this Lord's Day. And so David here, when he is fleeing from Saul, asks the food of the priests. They gave him the showbread. It was a case of necessity on the Sabbath day. And the same argument Jesus is saying can be made for my disciples here. They were hungry. And notice the Pharisees don't criticize them taking someone else's grain because that was another law in Deuteronomy that was given, that you could glean a part of a field in order to eat as you're walking along the way. But they're particularly focused here on the Sabbath day. And Jesus is saying this to them in essence, well if you're going to be critical of my disciples and me, you need to also be critical of David. And he's going to be drawing this comparison as the son of man, as the son of David, when he will say, in this place is one greater than the temple. This had to absolutely, in colloquial terms, blow the mind of the Pharisees. He was laying claim himself to be Lord, King of Sabbath, greater than the very temple and even David who they revered as well. Do we own and acknowledge in our Lord's Day observance of rest and delight in hearing the word and the things our catechism set forth. Do we do that in recognition of Jesus is our Lord, our King. He's greater than the temple itself. Or are we holding on to some kind of mechanical tick the box description of keeping the Sabbath day holy. The Pharisees in their zeal had overlooked acts of necessity and mercy. Jesus then uses another example. He says, Have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath day the priests themselves in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless. In other words, children, the priests were actually working. They were carrying the sacrifices, they were moving the showbread, they were lighting the candles. All this activity could have been seen as by a common person work, but for the priest was not. And so Jesus is saying he is profaning the Sabbath. And if you consider those priests which were commanded of God to do these things are not profaning the Sabbath, why are you accusing me and my disciples of breaking the Sabbath. Jesus is not saying here in these two illustrations that he can do whatever he wants on the Sabbath. It's not his point. His point here is to make clear to those who had false understandings of the Sabbath to point to himself. which was the very place of controversy in the heart of the Pharisee. It would mean the Pharisee and the legalist would have to bow in submission, in surrender to who Jesus said he was, and believe his word. have we bowed in surrender to all the words of Jesus in sweet delight and rest. Even when in the circumstances we see with our eyes it doesn't look like rest, nevertheless, knowing he has promised sufficient grace for the day, promise that He will lay nothing upon us greater than we can carry. We recognize in confession by faith He is Lord, Lord of Sabbath. He is greater than the temple itself. Jesus here is setting before us his identity, who he truly is. And he's reasoning from the lesser to the greater. He does that later after he's healed this man with a withered hand and on other occasions he says, if you have a sheep, one sheep that has fallen into a pit on the Sabbath day, don't any of you even go to that sheep in kindness and mercy and care for the sheep? Take him out of the pit or you let him drown and wait until the next day, in our case on Monday. No, of course not. How merciful are we to others around us from day to day, not only on the Lord's day? Of how much greater value is that person at work who has told you he or she is transgender than a sheep? How do you show them mercy and kindness rather than judgment? It is good to show mercy, to heal, and to do well on the Sabbath and each and every day. This is the principle of Sabbath worship. Yes, we can do legitimate things. We have legitimate occupations on the Lord's day. We could discuss all of that. It's not the point this morning. Jesus is giving a common example, a plain, simple illustration. If you even do this with your sheep that has fallen into the pit, How can you say to me who has healed the withered man's hand that I shouldn't have done this? The root of judgmental Phariseeism was hypocrisy and unbelief. How many of us come to the house of God to worship the Lord, to hear his voice, but how many are delighting in our hearts with what Jesus has done for sinners like ourselves. So that, believing that to be true, nothing can stop me from speaking about his mercy with delight that he has shown to me and he can show to you. This is, in essence, what it means also to keep Sabbath, that we delight in God. But if this heart of the matter is missing in our own hearts, this day in particular, which is an outward expression of that reality of mercy and rest, we're going to miss this rest and the day will become a burden to us. Was it a burden for you to come today? Is it a burden for you during the week to open the scriptures and to hear what Jesus is saying to you? Is it a burden and not a delight? Jesus wants this to be our delight and our joy. Turn with me back in Matthew to what has just been said by Jesus before this controversy of the Sabbath day. He says here, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, has revealed them to babes, even so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight. All things delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal it. Now these words, come to me. All you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, Sabbath, rest. What are you carrying even to this place and day which proclaims to us rest? Yes, rest from our physical labor. That's all true. You can take a nap, whatever. but rest that points us to what we have when we are in Christ. Are you anxious? Are you guilty? Are you burdened? Here is rest. Come to me, Jesus said. You who are laboring and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest to your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Do you know what a yoke is? A yoke is a symbol of service, of servitude. What did they use a yoke for? Well, often they would have two oxen or an oxen that would have this around their neck. to do labor. And the yoke was actually somewhat, yes, confining, but when the animal would follow in the path of the one who had placed on the yoke, he would be at rest, though he's working. And the same could be said of us. Jesus is saying, no, I'm not just going to give you rest in the way you like to rest. You wanna be lazy maybe, or you don't wanna face troubles, you don't wanna face this conflict in your relationship, you don't wanna deal with sin in your life and kill it and crucify it. That's not what he's saying by take my yoke and I'll take care of everything. No, he's saying take my yoke on you, learn of me, follow me, Believe that the circumstances you have been placed in are by my hand and that I will give you grace to endure them. In me you will have rest. For your soul. Take my yoke on you and learn of me. Taking Jesus' yoke on us means you and I are done with determining what we think we want to do. And we submit ourselves to the Lord of Sabbath. And we follow him in delight, in joy, and rest. Amen. Let us pray. Lord of Sabbath, who gives rest, who is rest, Lord, take these feeble words, an explanation of who thou art and the rest that thou dost provide us. and give to weary, burdened souls, sinners, and even your own people, at times carrying burdens not meant to be borne by them, and help us to follow in obedience and surrender and dependence upon Him who has said, come to me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. And so, Lord, command what you will and give what you command. Help us to keep this day wholly devoted to this thought of rest, peace, delight, and that even as we gather as families, we may discuss together what this practically looks like in our lives from day to day. Bless us as a congregation as we gather tonight. Bless also the means being used to Obtain a pastor to go before us and minister the Word to us, and remember those also who find the yoke too much and want to get away, but use the means of discipline in their lives to bring them back to this place of rest and delight. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.