Lord of the Sabbath Matthew 11:25-12:8

Jesus invites us to come to Him to experience Sabbath rest.

My Favorite Illustrations The Best Weather for Sunday

I became pastor of the Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Mobile, Alabama, on January 1, 1945. The first ten Sundays were rainy. Nevertheless we had large attendance at both Sunday School and worship services.

One Sunday in early March I said to the people, “If we had just one pretty weekend, what could we do?” Later I learned that one lady had responded, “We’d show him what we could do. We’d go across the bay.”

The next Sunday I said, “Finally I have learned how to pray about the weekend weather. I do not pray for rain. The people would stay at home. I do not pray for pretty weather. The people would go across the bay. I pray for threatening weather. That will keep you in town, but will allow you to come to church.”

I. He is Lord vv. 25-27

When we pick up our passage this morning, we find Jesus make an incredible declaration

It’s a declaration of God’s intention

God has hidden His wisdom and an understanding of the Kingdom from the wise and shared it with “little children”

How can this be?

The wise and understanding miss the Kingdom because they already believe that they have all wisdom and they understand how the world really works.

On the other hand, little children receive the message of the Kingdom with humility

They trust the Word of the Lord is the Word of the Lord and believe

Instead of telling God how they think He ought to work, they simply accept it as true and receive it.

It’s also a declaration of His unique relationship with God

Critically, we see that Jesus is the “Son” of God, uniquely begotten by the Father

What does that relationship look like?

The Father gives “all things” to the Son

The Father and the Son fully know each other

The Son reveals the Father to others

This passage points us towards a truth that we see revealed in fuller detail elsewhere: Jesus is not just human, but also divine. He is the Lord and carries the authority of God in all things:

We must listen to what He says and do it

When Jesus speaks, He speaks with the authority and power of God and His words are not helpful suggestions, but are instead promises and commands from God

At my Dad’s business this week, there was a terrible accident, involving a huge oil boat from another shipyard that was flying out of control across the water. The big steel boat slammed into a dock with 4 wood and fiberglass boats and caused major damage and a couple of the guys working had to flee the scene. The truth is, no matter how they felt about the ship coming their way, it was real and it was greater than they were. This is how it is with the authority of Christ; how you feel about it is insignificant in comparison to the truth of it. When Jesus speaks, He speaks with all of the authority of the Lord.

II. He Offers Rest vv. 28-30

Next, we hear Jesus issue a sweeping invitation; it is an invitation to those who are weary from their labor and burdened by their cares

It is an offer of rest

I hope that we will all pause and listen to this invitation, because it is good for today as well

Jesus invites us to stop our work and lay down our burdens and come to Him; there, we will find rest

I believe that we must understand the fullness of the invitation:

We lay down one burden and we take up another one

We trade the one we were carrying for the one that He provides

It is an easier burden, with a lighter load to pull

This is because we pull the load with Him

He has done and is doing the work; we simply come alongside Him and walk in step with Him through life

This is exactly what happens when we answer His call to follow:

We get His leadership

We get His protection

We get His provision

We get His presence

The burden gets light because He takes the weight of it away!

300 Illustrations for Preachers Bad Bosses Cause Heart Attacks

From 1992 to 2002, Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm tracked more than 3,000 men, rating them and their perceptions about their bosses. By the end of the study, 74 of the men had suffered heart attacks or other serious cardiac events. The lower an employer’s leadership score, the higher the worker’s risk of heart problems. The chance of heart attack also increased with the number of years of exposure to the bad boss.

Anxiety, whether generated at work or at home, will do nothing to increase a person’s lifespan or quality of life.

Maybe our problem is that we are trusting the wrong boss!

III. He is Lord of the Sabbath vv. 1-8

In our final scene, things fast forward and Jesus and the disciples are walking through a grain field on the Sabbath

In their hunger, they plucked heads of grain and ate

However, this action brought an accusation from the Pharisees, an accusation of Sabbath-breaking

Jesus is more than prepared to answer their objections and He does it in 3 ways:

First, He uses a scriptural example: David’s men and the Bread of the Presence

They were hungry, fleeing Saul and the only bread available to them was bread dedicated to worship

David and his men ate the bread and they were not punished nor considered in the wrong for doing so

Likewise, Jesus uses the seeming inconsistency of the priests: Are they breaking the Sabbath by doing hard work in the Temple? Of course not! Their work is necessary for worship to take place

Second, He demonstrates the higher law of righteousness:

He desires mercy and not sacrifice

It is better to show mercy to the hungry than to demand sacrifice

It takes the effort of some to show mercy to many

The goal of Sabbath is not to protect a building or to follow a set of rules, but to bring people into God’s presence to experience His rest

This is perfectly demonstrated in His own ministry, even in His purpose in coming

He is the Lord over the Sabbath

He is greater than the Temple and it is His holiness that is of greatest importance

He is prepared to show mercy and to give us rest

He has provided the sacrifice; He does not demand anything from us but invites us to come to Him

The invitation is not that we come and accomplish something to be accepted by Him; it is that we come and rest in what He has accomplished for us

This is what the wise and understanding miss and the little children receive: Salvation that comes by grace through faith and fruitfulness that is fulfilled through abiding in Christ

We see this same idea even in sophisticated examinations of authority. For instance, William Oncken, Jr., in a 1970 Colorado Institute of Technology Journal, gives an analysis of authority that suggests it is comprised of four elements:

1. The Authority of Competence: the more competent the other fellow knows you are, the more confident he will be that you know what you are talking about and the more likely he will be to follow your orders, requests, or suggestions. He will think of you as an authority in the matter under consideration and will feel it risky to ignore your wishes.

2. The Authority of Position: This component gives you the right to tell someone, "Do it or else." It has teeth. "The boss wants it" is a bugle call that can snap many an office or shop into action.

3. The Authority of Personality: The easier it is for the other fellow to talk to you, to listen to you, or to work with you, the easier he will find it to respond to your wishes.

4. The Authority of Character: This component is your "credit rating" with other people as to your integrity, reliability, honesty, loyalty, sincerity, personal morals, and ethics. Obviously you will get more and better from a man who has respect for your character than from one who hasn't.

Here’s our invitation:

To come to Him and experience His Lordship

To rest in Him and trust His Leadership