Behold the King: Mercy or Sacrifice?

Behold The King  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  49:24
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Matthew 12:1–8 KJV 1900
At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
When this country was established our government has written, passed, and enforced what have been called “blue laws.” These laws are based originally on the Biblical injunction against working on the Sabbath. The first blue law enacted was in the Virginia colony. It required that every citizen attend church on Sunday. Eventually These laws spanned a great deal of requirements from not selling alcohol on Sunday till noon to no cockfighting on Sunday.
Around sixty years ago these laws started to be ignored and eventually repealed. And thank goodness! Who doesn’t want to watch a good cockfight on Sunday after Church.
I am concerned for the American churches as a whole.
If trends continue church goers will be prepared for everything … except to hear from God.
People come to churches are prepared to be entertained.
Prepared to give to missions.
prepared to spend an few hour without their kids.
Prepared to feed the hungry.
Prepared to serve in the hospitality group, children's ministry, sing, play instruments, even preach.
But I wonder how many church goers today are ready to worship Jesus through dedication?
I am concerned about Faithway’s future.
We might have gotten ready this morning to come sing, fellowship, serve, and even preach.
But the human tendency is to create a check list of things to do, just to get through our days. But Jesus doesn’t want us to just get through our days. He wants to Shine through your days!
Note: Sunday is not the Sabbath Day, Saturday is.
The Old Testament does not describe what a work is, the only work it tells us is breaking the sabbath is gathering wood to make a fire, or bearing a burden, not talking idly but instead delight in God. God allows for some liberty for the Israelites. But in typical fashion, we perverted humans like to put words in God’s mouth! You have to wear this, you can’t touch that, this day is sacred, Monday is not.
Note: The Christian is not supposed to divide his life up into different categories; church is sacred, work is fleshly, Prayer meeting is holy, home is not. For the child of God, every day is sacred and everywhere is holy. The Bible does not tell us that we become holy by putting on our Sunday “best!” We are holy because we are in Christ!
We have been made the righteousness of God through Christ
The Pharisees had seen the vagueness of the command as problematic. It is as if they said, “Well, if God is not going to give more specifications I guess we have to just add our own!” And they invented literally thousands of petty rules and regulations that made keeping them more work than a days work on the farm.
they could not plow, hunt, butcher, latch a shoe, loose knots, sew more than one stich, write more than one letter. Modern Orthodox Jews will light a candle on Friday evening so they can light their cigarrets on Saturday because striking a match or flipping open a Zippo is considered work. They will poor their bear into pitchers because pouring liquids is work.
In this episode of Behold The King, we see Jesus interacting with the nit-picky churchgoers . He teaches them three dynamic laws that guide us to letting Jesus shine through our days. Especially our Sunday’s!

Be Dedicated To Worship God

Jesus is the third person of the eternal Godhead manifested in the flesh. Being God he cannot do anything that is outside of his character, including break the Sabbath. Jesus was headed to the place where the congregation of local Jews would hear the written word of God taught and exposited. This is to be expected of a religious Jew, but Jesus did not do it because others expected it of him, rather he did it because he holds the characteristic of faithfulness to God the Father.
Jesus went to church! Now the congregation that gathered to the synagogue was not technically the church, but it was a precursor of the way we gather today. This was the local place where the congregation of local Jews would hear the written word of God taught and exposited. They would sing, fellowship, and just like most churchgoers today gossip.
Jesus was showing how to live out the Gospel, He was showing what following the greatest commandment looked like.
Deuteronomy 6:5 KJV 1900
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
John 4:24 KJV 1900
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Being dedicated to Jesus has no limits!
Peter, Paul, Silas went to prison.
Stephen, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Matthew, Thaddeaus, Simon, Judas, Matthias, Paul were all Martyred.
Luke 14:27 KJV 1900
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Heres some good news, you most likely wont be martyred for being dedicated to worshiping Jesus in America. But you are told that to have a dynamic impact for Jesus in this life you need to prepare your whole body to worship Him.

Being Merciful Trumps Egomania Every time

The Pharisees were on their way to the synagogue as well and being persuaded by their personal convictions that Jesus was a fraud and that he sought to destroy everything they held dear and doctrinal they watched for any instance that could prove their preconceived ideas. The objection they had was not of Jesus’ actions but rather his supposed sin of omission. Jesus did not rebuke his disciples for “working” on the Sabbath.
The Pharisees were going to church too!
They had prepared. They had prepared their speeches to the common people.
They had prepared to show how godlike they were.
The Pharisees had been taught that the way to please God was to labor to become godlike without the help or presence of God. The danger of this belief was that they made themselves think that they were masters of Scripture and morals.
Romans 10:1–3 KJV 1900
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Their personal convictions about how someone acted, dressed, talked, and even ate caused them to condemn everyone around them. They had learned to use God’s Word as a weapon of mass destruction!
Faithway, the Word of God is a weapon. But it is meant to be a weapon of Grace and Truth.
Jesus (like a Ju-Jitsu master) takes the expertise of the Pharisees and uses it against them. He references two accounts in Scriptures (one from the Prophets and another from the Pentateuch).
The first account was topically applicable to the situation and proved the innocence of the disciples.
1 Samuel 21:1–6 KJV 1900
Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
The second account was proving that the command was a guide to help people spend the Sabbath focusing on praising God.
Numbers 28:9–10 KJV 1900
And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof: This is the burnt offering of every sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering.
The disciples were both innocent and actively obeying the command.
Romans 14:10–14 KJV 1900
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Romans 14:17–20 KJV 1900
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
Then Jesus flips the condemnation on to the Pharisees, He quotes Hosea 6:6 and shows the Pharisees that they were ready to sacrifice the disciples in a spirit contrary to the God they claimed to be so zealous of. They had used the Scripture with conviction, but the conviction was based on personal preference and misinterpretation of the character of God.
they could not plow, hunt, butcher, latch a shoe, loose knots, sew more than one stich, write more than one letter. Modern Orthodox Jews will light a candle on Friday evening so they can light their cigarrets on Saturday because striking a match or flipping open a Zippo is considered work. They will poor their bear into pitchers because pouring liquids is work.
If we add to the Scriptural commands more than what God says … we are acting like Satan! Yea hath God said?

Their is Only One God

The Pharisees were trying to do what Satan tried to do, become like the most high. Satan failed and so will we. When we dogmatically say what God has not dogmatically stated we are saying we know more than God.
No one feels this more than those trying to “Go Green”
According to some Canadian psychologists, those who purchase “environmentally friendly” items feel a “moral glow.”
This makes them more likely to cheat and act selfishly in other areas of their lives.
The study showed that “Green” customers are more likely to lie about test results, spiritual involvement, and family dynamics in order to make more money. This suggests that they are either trying to make up for their faults or they feel morally superior to others and that allows them to commit small immoral acts.
In other words, they feel justified in playing the role of God.
In each of our lives we have lists that we follow, and when we follow them we feel the ability to make our selves “The Lord of the Sabbath.”
There is only One God and Jesus states that He is Him. We are made in God’s image, We cannot make God into our image.
The Son of man is not a reference to Jesus’ humanity but is a distinct reference to the prophetic name of the Messiah, the God in the Flesh.
Daniel 7:13–14 KJV 1900
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, 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.
Matthew 28:18 KJV 1900
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
The Son of man possesses the lordship over the Sabbath because He is the God who created it. His authority gives him the right and power to render all superstitions null and void and to dictate whether an action is lawful or not.
Matthew 11:27 KJV 1900
All things are 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 him.
This claim of Jesus will be the claim the nit-picky individuals will deny and send Jesus to the cross.
Matthew 26:63–64 KJV 1900
But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
When Faithway is dedicated to worship Jesus, deal with others with mercy and not egomania, and Let God Be God. Then we will see God do what only God can do!
Conclusion:
This week, when you are striving to glorify God with your life and get tempted to fall back on a list of rules that you have developed, or have had developed for you, remember that Jesus deserves our full dedication. Following Jesus will kill your egomaniacal tendencies and through the Spirit you can live a merciful life. You are not God so don’t pretend you are, let God be God and let Him enrich you with His presence.
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