True Sabbath (Rest)

Scripture Reading

Prayer

Review

Intro

Begin Point 1

Matthew 12:1–8 ESV

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

(1) At that time (litterally, at about that time), sounds chronological and has some of those elements but relly connects this passage to Jesus promising rest to the weary and heavy laden.

Explain Sabbath

Explain Talmud

Jesus and His disciples needed to eat so they practiced a legal and accepted means of getting food

(2) Jesus was accused of allowing His disciples to break the Sabbath

Not condemned in the OT

Questionably condemned in the Talmud

(3-4) Jesus does not defend himself on the basis that the accepted teaching was wrong by simply stating it, instead, he showed them how it was wrong.

Scripture makes exceptions for the Sabbath

1 David Jesus if King

(5) 2 Service to a higher purpose (preistly temple work) is an exception

(6) Jesus is greater than the temple Jesus if Priest

(7) (previously quoted in chapter 9) Mercy, equals love, spirit, Sacrifice = blind outward obedience

(8) Jesus is Lord of the Sabath Jesus if Lord

I. Jesus is the Greatest King, Highest Priest, and Lord; So Follow Him (1-8)

Applications:

We tend toward Legalism, instead, strive for mercy, because that is what Jesus did.

Be careful not to be a Pharisee, condemning those who are guiltless

Begin Point 2

Matthew 12:9–14 ESV

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. 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.” 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.

(9-10) Pharisees now trying to bait Jesus

(11-12) Jesus defends Himself by pointing to ther hypocrysy

(13) Jesus defies them

(14) The Pharisees are now plotting against Jesus

II. Jesus was Hated Because His Message the Opposite of Legalism (9-19)

Applications:

Always choose to do right.

The ends justify the means philosophy is anti-Gospel, however, the goal should always be to do good