5-16-21 Lord of the Sabbath - Mark 2:23-27

Good morning! I’m excited to continue our series in the book of Mark today. Last week, Craig did an excellent job sharing with us about the ministry of tears. He talked about how we trust God based His word and His character, not on our circumstances and experiences and how ‘those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.’ Craig took us through Psalm 126 in depth and encouraged us in our growth both with the Lord with one another in community. Two weeks ago, we looked at a story from Luke (or Mark 2:18-22) where Jesus was asked a question about fasting. The Pharisees were probably asking about fasting because they were hungry (they fasted two days a week); but Jesus answered their question by talking about the joy of celebrating with the bride and bridegroom on their wedding day. He was talking about how joy in the presence of God is more important than following religious rules by roat. Or, to say that differently, people are more important than rules, (even if some of the rules are generally helpful, right, or good). Jesus went on to talk about old and new garments and old and new wine. And one point about the new garments and new wine is that we need to be continually committed to our own spiritual growth, day in and day out, so that God can pour out His new refreshment and new joy into us each day. And as God pours his new joy into us each day, the joy of the Lord will give us strength for the journey, grace for today, and hope for tomorrow. You can certainly listen to those previous messages if you missed them, as they are posted to the website. And so today we’re continuing our series in Mark. It’s interesting to me that the Pharisees get angry about food again in this next story. Only this time they’re mad because the disciples are eating on the sabbath. It was less about the fact that they were eating and more about the fact that the disciples went out walking to get food. But why are the Pharisees so obsessed with what Jesus eats and when He eats it? Well, they like food. Actually it would be more accurate to say that they Lord of the Sabbath | 1 liked it when other people served them food. Jesus said about the scribes and Pharisees that “They love the place of honor at dinners and the front seats in synagogues.” Matthew 23:6 GW. Apparently they’re obsessed with dinners and the place of recognition and respect they get at these dinners. Of course, Jesus is not obsessed with the high places at dinner parties. He has more important things to think about. He cares more about the weightier measures of the law, of following God, of pushing back the works of darkness, and of bringing healing, redemption, restoration, and new life to anyone who would turn to Him. Romans 14:17 NKJV “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The comparison and contrast we see about food attitudes between Jesus and the Pharisees always brings us back to God’s heart for people. God loves people, the Pharisees love rules and religion. We've been seeing this theme emerge over the last few weeks in Mark chapter 2; but the point is that God cares about loving people; He cares about being there with them through their joy, their pain, their good times and bad, and helping them grow to look more like Jesus. The Holy Spirit tells us to “grow [spiritually mature] in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18a AMP. And as we grow in Jesus and in His ways, we’ll find, like Him, we’ll care more and more about people and about loving them well. But let’s pray before we jump into the next portion of Mark 2. Father in Heaven, thank you for this time we have together. Bless Your word today and show us Your heart. Holy Spirit, we ask You to come and have Your way in this place. We welcome You and invite Your love, Your conviction, Your care and Your Lordship. We honor You Jesus, and we thank you that You died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to give us new life. Thank you that we don’t need to get Lord of the Sabbath | 2 our identity from where we sit at banquets, from reputation, or from anyone other than You. Thank You for making us Your beloved sons and daughters by Your mercy and grace. We give you glory and honor for making us Your portion, and we thank you for Your love, Your care, and Your presence. Father, we give You all the glory, honor, and praise. Speak to us today by Your Holy Spirit we ask, in Jesus’ Name, amen. This next story in Mark has to do with food again. And Jesus’ disciples are eating on the Sabbath day, walking through a grainfield, and the pharisees see them. The Pharisees would have done no work at all on the Sabbath (the Sabbath was the Hebrew day of rest) - I imagine them as the village busybodies on the sabbath day just peeking out the windows and yelling if they saw another Jewish person walking around - “you can’t do that! It’s the sabbath! Go back home and sit and be miserable like we are!” I’m getting a little ahead of myself; but let’s see what happens as Jesus goes for a stroll on the Sabbath through a grain field. Mark 2:23-27 NKJV “Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?” 27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Basically, the gist of the story here is that the Pharisees get mad (again, over food) because Jesus’s disciples were plucking grain and eating it on the sabbath day. The last time they got mad in this chapter it was because Jesus and the disciples were having fun at a banquet. Now they get mad because the disciples are Lord of the Sabbath | 3 ‘doing work’ on the sabbath day. Even though the only work they’re doing is picking up food for themselves. They’re hungry. I can imagine the Pharisees thinking something along the lines of, “ohh, we’ve really got Jesus now! Clearly, we know the scripture better than He does because He’s letting His disciples pick up food on the Sabbath!” I imagine the scribes are using their online bible to look up scripture before they call Jesus out for this problem. Or their online scrolls, I guess. They had the internet then, right? Anyway, in their scrolls, they may have been looking at Exodus 16:29 NLT “They must realize that the Sabbath is the Lord’s gift to you. That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days. On the Sabbath day you must each stay in your place. Do not go out to pick up food on the seventh day.” There it is! See! The Bible says you can’t pick up food on a Sunday. Jesus, your disciples aren’t doing what God commanded. Moses says you can’t go get food on the sabbath because it’s a do nothing day! But Jesus isn’t phased by their pointy fingers. He knows the Pharisees have missed the entire point of the Sabbath. And the point of the Sabbath is the same point Jesus has been trying to make since day one; that God loves people, provides for people, and gives them an avenue to eat and to rest at the same time as long as they love Him and follow His ways. The Pharisees were so obsessed with the fact that you weren’t allowed to work on the Sabbath, they totally forgot that the Lord is Jehovah Jireh, our provider, the God who gave them a two-day supply of food before the Sabbath so they would have their food needs taken care of on their rest day. And Jesus brings out the point that God is the God who meets human need, no matter what day it is. “But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him.” Mark 2:25. Jesus' statement here should frame both our understanding of who our Father God is (or one aspect of His character as our Provider) and what the Sabbath really Lord of the Sabbath | 4 means. Look at the words Jesus uses, ‘in need’ and ‘hungry.’ Will you repeat after me? Say, “my need,” “my hunger.” Two weeks ago, we talked about ‘my joy,’ and ‘my growth’ and how Jesus gives us joy which is unto growth in Him. Today we’re talking about ‘my need’ and ‘my hunger,’ and how Jesus meets both by providing Himself as Savior and by the Sabbath, or rest day. Maybe you have a need today. Maybe you need peace, rest, joy, or breakthrough. Maybe You need a closer connection with the Lord, a new excitement to follow Him, or a new word of wisdom or knowledge to help you in your current circumstances. Maybe you’re hungry for deeper fulfillment, deeper relationships, deeper growth, or deeper purpose. I have good news for you today; Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, has come to meet us in our need and provide food for our hunger no matter what the need is or what we hunger for. Jesus is the answer, and all our provision is found in Him. Jesus said “the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:8 ESV So I want us to look at the sabbath today in context of God as Provider, as the One who supplies us with everything we need, as the God who is the source of all good things. The Sabbath was a day that was set aside as a time for both rest and worship.1 The word ‘sabbath’ is Hebrew, of course, and comes from the word “shabbat” which means “to cease,” to “desist” or “to stop.” The Hebrew people would stop working on the sabbath. And this practice of resting from work one day out of every seven goes all the way back to the creation account. In other words, God created us to need a rest day. Genesis 2:2-3 NLT “On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.” 1 Hayford, Jack W., editor. The Hayford Bible Handbook, entry “Sabbath,” P774. Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 1995. Lord of the Sabbath | 5 In resting from His creation work, God also created a pattern for us to live by. If God rests from His work, then it’s probably a good idea if we do, too. That’s actually difficult for a lot of people. Today there are many, many people who are work-a-holics; they never stop and rest, they never slow down, they never take a breath. There was an article in the paper last month that said, as of 2016, less than half of workers with paid vacation days used most of them. The point of the article was that some workers don’t really use their paid time off, no matter how burned out they feel.2 But the Bible says God rested from His work. Now, God didn’t rest because He was tired. God doesn’t actually ever need to rest, He never gets burned out, and He never needs to take a vacation day. Did you know that? God never gets tired, He never needs a nap, He never needs to slow down, He never needs to stop, to cease, or to desist from His work if He doesn’t want to. We often say around here that God works the night shift. That means He never stops working on our behalf. Jesus is always praying for us, interceding for us, and moving things around in His sovereignty (that means He’s the supreme ruler of the universe) for our good and His glory. My point is that God didn’t stop working on the seventh day because He needed a break. Psalm 121:3-4 CEB God won’t let your foot slip. Your protector won’t fall asleep on the job. 4 No! Israel’s protector never sleeps or rests! Hmmm. If God never rests, if He wasn’t tired, if He didn’t need a break, then why did He stop working on the seventh day? He stopped working to create rest. I would argue that by resting from His work of creation, He was actually still creating something because He is creative in His nature. By resting He was creating rest. Colossians 1:16 AMP “For by Him all things were created in 2 Feintzeig, Rachel. “The Workers Who Can’t Commit to a Vacation.” Wall Street Journal, 25 April 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-workers-who-cant-commit-to-a-vacation-11619395200?mod=searchresults_pos5&page=1. Accessed 13 5 2021. Lord of the Sabbath | 6 heaven and on earth, [things] visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [that is, by His activity] and for Him.” By God’s activity of resting, rest is created! Or I guess we could say by God’s inactivity, He created our inactivity, our rest, the ability for us to be inactive sometimes, too. My point is that God created rest to meet our needs, because Hebis the Provider - God was providing for our needs, the needs of the earth, and the needs of the animals; God was providing rest for all of His creation. By resting, He was creating rest itself! And the seventh day, the day God created rest, is called the Sabbath day. And so the Sabbath day, or the sabbath principle is how God provides a break for our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. It’s an invitation to rest in the God who is above all thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities; it’s an invitation to enter God’s perfect rest. God provided an entire rest day for us because He wanted us to know how important rest actually is for our well-being. Maybe you need rest in some area of your life today. It could be rest from people, it could be rest from a situation or circumstance you face. It could be that you’re just physically tired today. God wants to provide the rest you need. And the first way God gives us the rest we need is by introducing us to Jesus; it's by knowing Him and having a deep relationship with Him that we find true rest. In other words, our souls can only be at peace and at rest when we are in Christ, when we know Jesus and follow His ways. Even when circumstances get crazy and we feel tired and burnt out from all we have to do, we know that in Christ we have eternal hope and a future. To paraphrase St. Augustine, “You, God, move us to delight in praising You; for you have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in You.”3 3 Augustine, and Henry Chadwick. Confessions, (Lib 1,1-2,2.5,5: CSEL 33, 1-5) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Print. Lord of the Sabbath | 7 The Bible actually calls our eternal future with Christ our rest. Hebrews 4:1-5 NLT God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. 2 For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. 3 For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. 4 We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.” 5 But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.” God has prepared eternal rest for you and me! And we can have His rest now because when we rest in Christ, we have true rest that meets all of our needs. We don’t have to die and go to heaven today to be able to rest in Christ. We get it after we die, too, but death isn’t a pre-requisite or requirement to have His rest. Of course, the book of Hebrews gives us a warning as well as a promise. And the warning is that we need to press into the Lord, follow Him and His ways, and to grow in Him so that we can obtain His rest. The word ‘rest’ is actually three different ways in Hebrews 3 and 4. First, it describes how life would be for the Israelites in the promised land, free of bondange and slavery. Some of you just finished the Freedom in Christ course, so you will know exactly what this means - but just like God wanted to give His people freedom and rest from Egyptian slavery in their own land that He would give, so Jesus wants to give us rest and freedom from the things that drag us down, enslave us, and cause us harm. Romans 8:2 NLT “And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” Romans tells us that the Holy Spirit of God has freed us from the power of sin in Lord of the Sabbath | 8 our lives. That means we now have the choice to make the choice; we can walk in God’s freedom and rest if we have faith and believe in Jesus and in what He says. Second, the writer of Hebrews uses the word rest in relation to God resting after creation. We talked about that a little already, and for the sake of time I don’t need to go further down that road. Finally, the word rest is used to apply the Old Testament example of the Israelites being freed from slavery and God’s rest to our walk as Christians today. That is what I just described, but when we put effort into ‘entering God’s rest,’ it doesn’t always mean we’re physically tired and need to take a nap. Sometimes, I suppose that may be the case. But it means we give full attention to our hearts and where we’re at with the Lord so that we won’t become unresponsive like Israel did and fail to listen to God’s voice or understand what He sounds like. God sent the prophets over and over to Israel, but they didn’t listen, hear, or understand. And so to enter God’s rest, our commitment to spiritual growth with Christ must remain steadfast and continual.4 My ultimate point here is that trusting in God brings us rest. The more we trust in Jesus as our provider, the more we trust in His ability to free us from sin slavery, to bring His perfect love, peace, joy, and provision into our lives, the more rest we will have. One author writes, “few have lived as stressful and frenetic a life as Hudson Taylor, the founder of China Inland Mission. But Taylor lived in God’s rest, as his son beautifully attests to. Day and night his secret was “just to roll the burden on the Lord.” Frequently those who were awake in the little house at Chinkiang might hear, at two or three in the morning, the soft refrain of Mr. Taylor’s favorite hymn [“Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art”]. He had learned that for him, only one life was possible— the blessed life of resting and rejoicing in the Lord under all circumstances, while He dealt with the 4 Hayford, Jack W., editor. The Hayford Bible Handbook, P429, Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 1995. Lord of the Sabbath | 9 difficulties, inward and outward, great and small. There is a rest for you. It is not beyond your capacity. You can have it if you wish.” 5 Jesus meets our need for rest. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and in some ways, He is our Sabbath. He is our provider and meets every need we have, even before we ask Him. Matthew 6:8b AMP “For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” But God also meets our hunger. He meets my needs and He satisfies my hunger. Of course He meets our physical need for food when we’re hungry. God provides for our physical needs. But He also satisfies our hunger for love, fellowship, and fulfillment, and He satisfies by providing Himself as our food. That may sound strange, but Jesus is the bread of life, He is One who satisfies our deepest hunger. When answering the Pharisees' question about eating food on the Sabbath, Jesus uses a story about David eating the showbread in the tabernacle. And He uses this story because, even though the pharisees didn’t know it, the entire tabernacle, the entire temple and old testament system of priestly worship both symbolizes Jesus Himself and how He satisfies our hunger. Matthew 12:3-8 NKJV But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which 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 that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But 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 even of the Sabbath.” 5 Hughes, R. Kent. Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul, P149. Crossway Books, 2015. Lord of the Sabbath | 10 Jesus is talking about David, the temple, and the showbread that David eats on the Sabbath. Why bring up the showbread that both David and the priests used to eat? Because the showbread was a continual reminder of the everlasting promises God made to His people, promises to feed them from His hand and to fill them up with His promises and His person. The idea, even back then is that God wanted to feed the priests with His presence! The ‘showbread’ in Hebrew is literally ‘the bread of the presence.’ The Amplified Bible helps us out a little with this; Exodus 25:30 AMP “You shall set the bread of the Presence (showbread) on the table before Me at all times.” You see, the presence of God has always been the one thing that satisfies our deepest hunger. When we’re with the Lord Jesus, we have fullness of joy, He meets every need we have, and He blesses us, both now and forever. Psalm 21:5-7 NKJV His glory is great in Your salvation; Honor and majesty You have placed upon him. 6 For You have made him most blessed forever;You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence. 7 For the king trusts in the Lord, And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. Here, we see God’s salvation, blessings, gladness, trust, and mercy all come from the presence of the Lord. Remember, trusting in God brings us rest, and staying in His presence fulfills our hunger. We can actually eat of God’s grace, love, and faithfulness. That means God’s faithfulness and love is so real in our daily lives that we can taste it. It’s tangible, it’s sweet, it’s real, and it’s filling. Psalm 37:3b AMPC “ feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed.” We were created to feed on God’s faithfulness, on His goodness, on His love. His presence, His person, and His promises are what gives us strength for our daily walk and our daily battles. So, to bring this back to David eating the showbread in the temple, God provided for David; He satisfied David's need for food. And now, Jesus is here, in Lord of the Sabbath | 11 front of the Pharisees, and He’s saying that He is the new showbread of the new covenant, the spiritual showbread we need to meet our spiritual hunger. Jesus is the bread of life. John 6:35 NKJV “And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” Jesus said that anyone who would come to Him would never hunger or thirst again. Physical bread, even holy showbread from the temple is consumed, we eat it up and it’s gone. But the spiritual Bread of Life, Jesus Christ our Savior, always and continually fills us up with His presence, meets our every need, and fills all of the deepest hunger of heart we could ever experience. The Hebrew word for ‘showbread’ means ‘bread of the presence,’ but it also could be translated as ‘bread of the face.” Why? Because when you eat of Jesus Christ, when you get in His presence each and every day, when you choose to give yourself to Him in worship, in praise, in honor, in thanksgiving, you actually get to see the face of God! You get to see who God is when you’re in His presence! And He sees You fully for who you are as well. Now, I’m not necessarily speaking in physical terms now; but I’m saying that when You choose to be in the presence of God, to kneel before His face, and come to Him with any requests, any hunger, any need you may have, that He will do it, He’ll meet Your deepest need. He’ll walk with You and talk with You; He’ll show You His face; and it’s the face of Jesus Christ our Savior, the face of a friend who sticks closer than a brother, the All-powerful, loving, compassion God of the universe who offers His salvation, His companionship, his provision, and His face. Psalm 27:8 NKJV “When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Our entire goal as Christians, our whole aim, is to worship God and seek His face. To worship is to seek the face of God. And Jesus, who is our showbread, the Bread of Life, the bread of the presence, is the one who brings us into God’s throne room so Lord of the Sabbath | 12 we can see His face, behold His beauty, His holiness, His mercy, kindness and love. Now I want to bring this back to the Sabbath and how God made that day to provide for every need and hunger we have with Himself. We’ve been talking about the showbread, the bread of the presence, or the ‘bread of the face’ was made fresh every sabbath. Leviticus 24:8 HCSB “The bread is to be set out before the Lord every Sabbath day as a perpetual covenant obligation on the part of the Israelites.” That means that God wants you to be refreshed, renewed, and refocused on Him every single week! He wants to give you fresh spiritual water to drink, fresh spiritual bread to eat; He wants you to be able to go out during the week from His house, His tabernacle, His temple, His presence and be energized spiritually so you can handle whatever you face. The sabbath contains the answer to our deepest hunger and our greatest need - and it’s not just about getting one-on-one time with Jesus. We do get spiritual rest from God one-on-one, and we can worship Him in our private alone time. We can and we should have time alone with Jesus during the week; but the sabbath was a special day set aside for rest, worship, and fellowship. Fellowship with other believers is huge! And God created us for it! The Greek word for fellowship is ‘koinonia’ and it means sharing, unity, close association, partnership, participation, communion, brotherhood, or helping contribute. It’s unity with other believers brought about by the Holy Spirit. In this koinonia we share an intimate bond with the rest of christian society, and it cements us together to Jesus and to one another.6 You see, Jesus is the bread of life; He’s the showbread. But this bread in the tabernacle, the bread of the presence wasn’t just one loaf of bread. There were 6 Hayford, Jack W., editor. The Hayford Bible Handbook, P616-617, entry ‘fellowship.’ Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 1995. Lord of the Sabbath | 13 twelve. All of the tribes of Israel were represented, each had a loaf of bread on the table. Leviticus 24:5-6 NLT “You must bake twelve flat loaves of bread from choice flour, using four quarts of flour for each loaf. 6 Place the bread before the Lord on the pure gold table, and arrange the loaves in two stacks, with six loaves in each stack.” The priests gathered around this table daily to eat together. And the twelve loaves of bread at this golden table represent fellowship, represent the body of Christ, the church. It takes all twelve to fully follow the law of the Old Covenant. Practically, that means for us today that all true fellowship, all true rest, and all true fulfillment of our deepest needs can only be met first in Jesus Christ and second through fellowship with His church, his people, His tribe. Let me explain the symbolism of the tabernacle a little more. The Bible says that we, as new testament believers, are priests and kings to the Lord because we are in Christ, we are believers in Jesus. Revelation 5:10 NKJV And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” So in this scenario of the temple with the showbread, the priests are us; we are represented by the priests. And together we’re to feed on Jesus as the Bread of Life, flavored by the frankincense of the Holy Spirit. That means that the sustaining food we have as believers is the Word of God; both the written Word, the Bible, and the Living Word, the Holy Spirit. Again, Jesus is represented by Bread (the Word) and the Holy Spirit is represented by frankincense. We can’t leave the Holy Spirit out of this equation, and I realize I’m moving quickly; but as we read about the show bread in Leviticus, we see that there is a spice that’s put on the bread so it’s acceptable as a fire offering. The Holy Spirit is often represented by fire in the Bible. Leviticus 24:7 NASB “You shall put pure frankincense on each row so that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, an offering by fire to the Lord.” Lord of the Sabbath | 14 My point is that you and I, as believers in Jesus Christ, are now symbolically following the Old Testament order that the priests had to follow in the temple. We come into God’s presence by way of the bloody altar (Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross), We are washed by the water in the laver (that’s a bowl) which represents the Word and the Holy Spirit, and then we seek fellowship in order to worship with other saints in the Holy Place (that’s where the showbread was). And this was all supposed to happen on the Sabbath.7 We can choose which God we want to worship, but we don’t get to choose how we want to worship Him - the forms are not the same as they were in the Old Covenant, but God has made a way for us to come into His presence where Jesus and the Holy Spirit do the heavy lifting so we can actually seek the face of the Most Holy God. And so the Sabbath isn’t just a reminder for us to rest and worship, it’s also a reminder to fellowship with other believers because “For where two or three are gathered in My name [meeting together as My followers], I am there among them.” Matthew 18:20 AMP. God promises to be with us whenever we gather together in His Name. That means that Jesus is here with us today. I think we understand that God is omnipresent; in other words He’s everywhere and He’s still with you and me during the week; Jesus said in Matthew 28 that He is with us always. But there’s a very different divine blessing that comes from the Sabbath principle of gathering together in koinonia fellowship with other believers, there’s a different need that is fulfilled in us, and a different hunger that’s satisfied by unity in community that’s provided by God Himself. And I want you to know that because Jesus is here with us today, right here, right now, your needs can be totally met by Him today. You can be filled up in Your spirit now because Jesus is here with us. 7 DeHaan, M. R. The Tabernacle, P92-94. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan, 1955. Lord of the Sabbath | 15 I want to close today by sharing a story about Jesus in fellowship with His twelve disciples, literally feeding people and meeting their needs. Luke 9:12-13 NLT Late in the afternoon the twelve disciples came to him and said, “Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night. There is nothing to eat here in this remote place.” 13 But Jesus said, “You feed them. “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?” If you remember, there were twelve showbread loaves which represented the twelve tribes of Israel, and it symbolized fellowship in the tabernacle simile. And here in Luke, as you may already know, we see that there are twelve disciples. That’s the same number, by the way, twelve. And Jesus tells the twelve disciples that they are the ones who are supposed to feed the people. There’s a lot to this story, but staying on the fellowship angle for now, let me ask: it is possible that some blessings and miracles of God only come to us through other people, through other disciples of Christ that we are in fellowship with? The answer is yes; of course we need each other. 1 Corinthians 12:17 NLT If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? In other words, there are some gifts and abilities I just don’t have. If I’m an eye, and I can see, I still can’t hear, and hearing is pretty important so I know where to look if something comes out of nowhere and makes a loud sound! You can come up with your own example, I’m sure, but the body wouldn’t work properly without all of the senses, nerve endings, and internal systems working properly. Now, the disciples are a little scared when Jesus asks them to feed over 5,000 people (5,000 men, not including women and children), and that’s understandable. When it comes to church fellowship, it can be scary being in Lord of the Sabbath | 16 community with other believers. What happens if they don’t accept me? What happens if they are mean, unloving, unkind, or immature in the way they interact with me and with one another? But as always, Jesus steps in. Jesus stepped in to help the disciples then, and He steps in to help us today. Luke 9:14-16 NLT For there were about 5,000 men there. Jesus replied, “Tell them to sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 So the people all sat down. 16 Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people.” There are a lot of numbers here. 5,000 men, twelve disciples, five loaves and two fish. I’m not great at mental math myself, but five loaves plus two fish is 7. Seven is God’s number of completion and perfection. God’s creative work was completed, finished on the 7th day, which is the Sabbath day. I don’t know that Jesus performed this particular miracle on the Sabbath, but the Sabbath principle is here. The Sabbath meets our need and our hunger; it is a day to meet the needs and the hunger of people as they come into God’s perfect rest and His complete provision. And He helps the disciples out by providing food for all the people gathered to hear His teaching. And with the 7 pieces of food, all of the people are filled, they’re satisfied. The people eat food physically, and spiritually eat of the goodness of God. In the presence of Jesus they are filled spiritually and physically. Luke 9:17 NLT “They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers!” There were twelve showbread loaves, twelve tribes of Israel represented by the bread, twelve disciples, and now twelve baskets of leftovers. Fellowship is important, and it’s important on the Sabbath. The twelve baskets of leftovers represent those who aren’t christians yet but will be invited to the feast, to the table, to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Lord of the Sabbath | 17 The leftovers foreshadow all of the people you and I will witness to and “feed” by our obedience to the Lord by consistently being His presence. And they will be in our fellowship as we commit to follow the Lord in obedience, trusting Him to help us whether we have a need, a hunger, or we’re trying to minister Jesus to others as His disciples. And so as I close, I want you to know that Jesus is here with us. He is here and He will meet whatever needs you have. He will meet whatever hunger you have in your spirit today, whatever need you have in your soul. As He said Mark 2:27 NKJV And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord our Provider, the God who provides manna in the desert and the bread of life through His sacrifice on the cross. Jesus made the Sabbath for man, not man for the sabbath. In the words of Charles Spurgeon: “It is to us the Sabbath; should not the Lord give rest to weary hearts that day? Men call it Sunday: we are happy when the Son of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings. Of old the week's work was done, and then the Sabbath dawned; but now rest leads the way: we begin the week’s work with the Sabbath rest; because we first find rest in Jesus, and then go labor for Him.”8 8 Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon's Sermon Notes: Matthew to Acts, P256. Louisville, Kentucky, Baptist Book Concern, 1922. Lord of the Sabbath | 18