I’m Chillin’

PRAY

Have you ever had a friend who was all the time trying to get everyone to look at them? Don’t point at anyone! But someone who is just setting things up to point to themselves all the time…?

If you are thinking, “no, I don’t know anyone like that” then I’m sorry to inform you that all your friends do because it’s you!

That’s how the Pharisees were… And they tried to make everyone else feel like crap because they weren’t them. I know none of you are doing that! But these guys were. But Jesus clowned ‘em because He doesn’t want to burden us, He wants to care for us and show us grace!

The passage we’re looking at has two stories about interactions Jesus had with the Pharisees on the Sabbath…

read 2:23-3:6

The commands of God are meant to offer grace to us, not be a burden.

Sabbath

Sabbath means rest.

God gave us the Sabbath in his grace to keep us from working ourselves to death…

My youngest son Dawson had no fear when he was really little because he had no sense…

We had to restrict him to protect him. We made rules, put up barriers, to show our love for him. This is why God gave us commands like Sabbath. Rest.

Exodus 20:9–11 ESV

Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Under the new Covenant with Jesus, we don’t have to observe Sabbath in the same way as the Old Covenant, before Jesus came…

Colossians 2:16 ESV

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

We need to rest. You need to rest! But a lot of people don’t like to rest, for different reasons…

God in his kindness and grace has commanded us to rest for our own good and to trust Him…

But the Pharisees did something different with these commands, they made them an opportunity to puff their own chests out. (Exactly why

Legalism

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Legalism is pointing to our performance instead of God’s grace.

Kristen accuses me some times of saying that my way is the only way of doing something and saying anything else is wrong. But that’s not fair! I don’t think that! My was is the best way of doing something, but that doesn’t make it the only way!

The Pharisees said their way was the right way and if people didn’t do it their way then they weren’t really holy.

At best, they were honestly trying to keep the law, at worst they were trying to hold themselves up and receive the praise of men rather than giving God glory.

Legalism is raising to the level of biblica mandate and command what God has neither commanded nor prohibited in his Word.

Daniel Akin

Jesus applied the words of the prophet Isaiah to the Pharisees…

Mark 7:7 ESV

in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

Scripture tells us what works done to prove our own righteousness are..

Isaiah 64:6 ESV

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Our only hope is Jesus. We can’t be righteous in our own effort. If you believe you can then you are missing the whole point of Jesus!

And certainly don’t think and don’t tell people that if they aren’t doing it your way then they aren’t doing it at all!

We have God’s Word…

If the Holy Spirit lays something on your heart, check it against God’s Word to be sure it doesn’t go against it, and then you be obedient, but you don’t get to hold others to that as well. Don’t try to create a burden out of God’s kindness!

Jesus cares for people.

Jesus doesn’t let them turn his care into a burden. His commands are for our good. They are an expression of his love. So He corrects the Pharisees.

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Just makes them look silly!

1 John 5:3 ESV

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Verse 28 tells us why Jesus can say these things.

So let’s draw some conclusions…

We needed the Sabbath because we are sinners…

We received the Sabbath because of God’s grace…

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath because He created it, therefore He is Lord of everything.

He cares for you! He loves you! Believe Him and surrender to Him!