Question of Compassion
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Question of Compassion Matt 12:9-14
Question of Compassion Matt 12:9-14
Welcome....
1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
Join with me as we pray....
Announcements
Jerry leads with Songs
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Good morning again my friends!
Next Week, Bro. Tommy Shell will be here preaching in my place while Marci and I get away for the weekend. Please come out and support him… He will prayerfully bring you a word from the Lord...
This morning we are heading over to the New Testament and we are looking at the Gospel of Matthew, who is also known as Levi before his conversion, the tax collector who left all to follow Jesus.
And this morning we are going to look at one of the miracles of Jesus. So lets go to Matthew 12, verses 9-14. This is the story of the man with the withered hand.
Now this is one of those unique miracles that we see take place in the midst of a larger argument.
The larger argument? What is lawful, what can be done on the Sabbath day?
Now Jesus and his disciples are in the town of Capernaum, and if you look at the whole of the chapter, we see this is the second of two confrontations with the religious leaders of the area.
The first encounter is Jesus and his disciples as they walk through a grain fields in the region, and as they walked they plucked some of the heads of grain as they walked on the way and ate them. And of course the religious leaders cried foul. They accused the men of conducting work on the Sabbath day.
This was a direct violation of the 4th commandment, “...Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy...” And with this comes the question, Does the Sabbath day prohibit work and if so, what constitutes work?
Well, we have a fair idea of what work is, but beyond this the push of having and keeping this day of rest wholly to the Lord, there are some exceptions to these ideas.
And what might these be? Well we could rationalize the ideas of carrying for livestock that still has to be tended to at times, there are certain other activities that must take place...
So what is acceptable and what is not? This is the larger question that our Lord will address as he deals with the religious leaders of the day.
So lets look at our first thought today…
1 Question of Legality....
As we open our text today, the very origin of all that is being argued here today centers around the question of legality.
You see the religious leaders of the day, they were seeking a reason to accuse Jesus, hoping to be able to bring charges against him, that might help them get rid of this man named Jesus.
It’s really sad to think that many of the religious leaders had hardened their heart to all that Jesus said and did…
So here in Capernaum, on the Sabbath day, Jesus and his disciples are in the local synagogue. Now look with me at verses 9-10
9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him.
So all that I have said we see illustrated in this text. Jesus and his disciples have come to the synagogue, and the religious leaders are hoping to trap Jesus in some matter concerning the law.
But wait, there in the crowd, we are told of one man the religious leaders have ensured are there, a man with a withered hand.
What does this mean, a withered hand? It refers to a disability this man had, it wasn’t life threatening but it did make his life much more difficult. The hand is drawn up, un usable and it hinders his life.
You know, many years ago when I pastored in Illinois, there was a older guy who was a Walmart greeter, remember when Walmart had greeters??? This man was named Paul and he was missing his right hand.
In place of his hand, there was a prosthetic hook. In one of our conversations I asked him what happened. He said when he was about 16, they were picking corn with a one row corn picker and it got jammed up. He said he reached in to free a ear of corn and as he did, it dragged his arm in and very quickly clipped his hand off.
That effected the rest of his life, it was a new reality for him to navigate life without on hand.. But he did all they he could in life and he lived, he was happy and always smiling. But life was a little harder.
This man in our text, we don’t know his story and we don’t know his name or how his life has been changed with out the use of his hand, but he is at the center of this debate…
The religious leaders made sure he was there, and as Jesus and his disciples show up, they asked him… Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath.
Now there are a couple of hidden thoughts that I want to also point out..
This man is by no means in need of immediate action, he would wait one more day and be healed on a day that wasn’t the sabbath. He could have sought Jesus out on a different day.
But secondly, the religious leaders, the Pharisees and scribes, they are demonstrating another great truth… The believed Jesus could heal this man’s withered hand.
And they were hoping Jesus would take the time to bless and help this man...
The religious leaders did all this concerning the idea of legality, Would Jesus break the command of God and violate the Sabbath law by healing - which they interpreted as work
Now lets move to our second thought for today,
2 Question of Compassion....
As Jesus and his disciples settle in there at the synagogue, of course Jesus knows there is one man there who has a great need.
Now this man, we don’t know his name, or anything about his life or family, and this day, he is there.. And sadly the religious leaders are exploiting this man and his need...
And now Jesus has been asked Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Literally, they might as well ask, is it right to do good things on the Sabbath?
And to their question, well Jesus responds to them with a parable of sorts.. lets look back at our text… Verses 11-12
11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
So what is Jesus saying to them? Jesus is taking them back to their own oral law.
You see the Jews have two sets of law, the written law which we call the Torah. And then we have the “Mishnah”, which is part of a larger work called the Talmud which contains the Oral law.
The oral law is a really the spoken interpretation to the rest of the written law.
So for instance, when God says in the 4th commandment, “...Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy...” - they would decide what this or that means, literally how is it all worked out.
So in regard to the Sabbath, what can or cannot happen on the Sabbath day? For instance, can you take are of your farms needs, like feeding the animals. And the oral law says if an animal is dependent on the owner for food, then they could be feed… So the religious leaders of the days past, they had supposedly figured all these things out.
And Jesus knows their law and their ways… and listen to what he says to them in regard to their question...
Verse 11 - Matthew 12:11 “11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?”
So Jesus puts a really practical matter before them. He asks them - If you had a sheep that had fell into a put where it could not get out by itself, would you go and help it out so that it could return to the flock?
And consider with me.… what the religious leaders had thought… This poor sheep… if you left it there, it might get distressed, it might hurt itself more so the right thing to do is to go, and get the sheep and help it out of the pit.
The implication is this, the sheep is one of God’s own creations, and God has placed it in their care, and being good stewards of what God has entrusted to them, they must do all they can to save and make sure the animal is cared for… this would not be considered “work.”
And so this is what the Mishnah allowed...
But Jesus asks a question of compassion… Listen guys, if we would do that to take care of a sheep, what would we do for mankind?
Look at verse 12 again… “12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
And so Jesus conclusion to their question is one of compassion. He tells them it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.… Why? for man is of great value in the eyes of God. Listen to Psalmist in Ps.8:5.
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
And listen to Jesus has he taught the Sermon on the Mount, early on in his public ministry in Matthew 6:26
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And later in Matthew 10:31
31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Listen my friends, God loves mankind, He created them, and now he is in the process of redeeming them through His own Son...
So here is a great thought for us as well… Do you ever feel less than about yourself, do you ever feel like you have no value in your own eyes and especially in the eyes of others?
My friends, you are of great worth and we know this through God’s love.
He has had compassion on us and loved us, and in that compassion… He died for us...
Do you realize that today?
So we have seen a Question of Legality, and just now a Question of Compassion
But lets move on my friends to this last thought for today...
3 A Miracle of Healing...
During the course of this day of worship in Capernaum, Jesus demonstrates the very worth of the man who was present.
Lets go back to our text, verses 13-14
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
You know, every time I see Jesus in the Scriptures, even reading the story, can you imagine how spectacular this event is...
I mean, here is a host of people in the Synagogue, the religious leaders are there and this one man, and we are told of a man who has a great need, He has a withered hand.
While not life threatening, it is debilitating, it hindered most everything we did during the course of his days, especially during a time when a man’s labor was by the sweat of is brow...
And Jesus upon hearing their question and now his response, Jesus looks to this particular man...
And his words are to the point. “Stretch out your hand...”, the call isn’t for him to do anything spectacular, it is one of simply, obedience. Stretch out your hand.…
And the Scripture tells us that he did… He followed the Lord’s command, He was obedient to the Lord command.
And look back at the text my friends… Verse 13 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other.
Wow...
As soon as the man hears and obeys, his hand was restored. The Scriptures says it was healthy, like the other hand that hand. The hand that was withered, drawn, smaller from years of no use, this hand is simply made whole again just as the Lord intended it to be…
Jesus has healed the man… that hand was perfect, usable and well.
Can you imagine, this man most likely, I would think has started doing things with this hand. I could see him picking up stuff, shaking hands with the other men, and I could see the men present looking at it. Almost like they were inspecting it, comparing it to the other
They were seeing for themselves what the Lord has done for him.
When Marci and I were in Bible college there was this one older professor, I am not sure how old he was, but he was up there.. I never will forget him speaking on this passage..
And I remember him saying.. This hand that hadn’t been a help to him, well on this day “...the Lord made that hand a helping hand.”
And isn’t that what the Lord does my friends?
The Lord takes us, who are broken, weary and wore out, and he calls for us to come to him and look at what he does, He changes us, he makes us well and whole.
And the Lord, well he makes us helpful, useful again my friends. He takes us who are dead, broken and beat up by sin and He gives us life and life eternal..
He takes the old us and makes us new...
Praise the Lord, the old man is gone, the new has come...
Let me ask you?
Do you know this man named Jesus, have you given your life to him, have you called him to heal your brokenness? Have you asked him to take away your sin? To make you new....
Today you can..
Now we know the rest of the text, the religious leaders, they think they know God, but they don’t… Jesus has told them they are like white washed tombs full of dead man’s bones...
And it is here.. their hearts so wicked that they began to conspire as to how they might destroy him...
They are not wanting to send him away, they are wanting to kill him, to stop him and his influence, they are so jealous of the one who brings life to all...
Mankind, in our own flesh, when our hearts are dark, we want nothing to do with Jesus..
But once we meet God, once he speaks to our heart and begins to remind us of our sin, to draw our hearts to Him...
You see Jesus meets us at our worst, and in our worst He makes us our best?
Let me ask you.. Do you know Jesus today? Have you felt him touch your heart and mind and call you saying come to me..
Leave the rest behind and come to me?
Will you do that today?
You have felt his call, will you come today?
