Be Wise and Learn

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If you have your Bibles, please open them to Matthew 12.

We are in our series called “A Rock of Offense’. In this series, we are going through Matthew ch 11-13, and in these chapters we find varied responses to Jesus, the majority of which is offense.

For this reason, we are calling this series, ‘A Rock of Offense.’

Tonight’s text takes a very sudden turn as those around Jesus shift from mere skepticism regarding Jesus identity to that of flat out rejection of him as Jesus’ opponents begin a plot to kill him.

It’s my desire that in hearing God’s word, we would not be skeptics, nor those who stumble. But instead that we would grow in knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus.

With this in mind, let’s stand for the reading of God’s Word.

Matthew 12:1–14 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.” 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.

Let’s pray

When I was young, I hated reading. Reading and comprehension.

Reading for the sake of comprehension…

We do not read for the sake of reading… if we do not understand what we are reading, well then reading is useless. We read so that we might grow in knowledge and understanding.

Not comprehending what we read isn’t just a problem when it comes to reading for school. Comprehension is important when we read God’s Word.

If we wish to come to Jesus and see him as precious as he truly is, then we need to read and understand the Bible.

This is what is happening in tonight’s Scripture. There were those who had a knowledge of the OT Scriptures. But in their understanding, they failed to understand the true meaning of all that they read.

Let’s set the scene and I will show you what I mean;

Matthew 12:1–2 ESV

There are two things we need to understand right way… what is the Sabbath, and who are the Pharisees?

What is the Sabbath?

The Sabbath is the 7th day of the week - The Sabbath was the day in which Israel was commanded by God to not work. Keeping the Sabbath is one of the ten commandments.

Exodus 20:8–11 ESV

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 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. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and 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.

Now that we know what the Sabbath is…

let’s consider the the Pharisees are?

Often times, modern Bible readers think the Pharisees are the “bad guys” - kind of like the siths Star wars - we might think the Pharisees were evil men set on doing what was wicked…

That’s not exactly true… actually the Pharisees were the good ol’ boys of the Bible. They loved God’s Word, and worked extra hard to obey all of God’s commandments...

Not only did they work to keep God’s law… but they would memorize the entire Law. Understand, the law is the first five books of our Bible

If we were living in the days of the NT, and one of you girls were dating a Pharisee, understand, your dad would be very happy because the Pharisees were believed to be some of the godliest men in Israel.

Now that we understand what the Sabbath is, and who the Pharisees were, let’s read these verses again.

Matthew 12:1–2 ESV

Understand, the Pharisees were upset, because they believed that the disciples were breaking the law by plucking grain on the day of rest… the Pharisees believed that the disciples were breaking God’s command to rest on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees who sought to keep the law, were accusing Jesus disciples of being lawless men.

In V 3-8 Jesus responds to the Pharisees accusation against his disciples. In these verses, Jesus gives three examples from the OT to demonstrate that Jesus’ disciples were in fact innocent of breaking the law. Listen to how Jesus said it;

Matthew 12:3–8 ESV

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.”

Notice, the three different OT references that Jesus made.

V 3 “Have you not read”

V 5 “Have you not read in the Law”

v7 “If you had known what this means”

In the first two, Jesus gives examples of times when the Law was broken…

David and his company ate food that they were not permitted to eat

And the priests had to in fact work on the Sabbath

and in both cases David, and the priests did not do explicitly what the Law required of them…

But were they breaking the law?

Illustrate:

If you exceed the speed limit, are you breaking the law?

If an emergency vehicle is responding to an emergency can they go over the speed limit?

So too, Jesus is showing the pharisees that there are times in which the law is not strictly observed,

and more than this, Jesus went on to show them that they do not truly understand God’s Word.

Matthew 12:7–8 ESV

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.”

Here Jesus is quoting Hosea 6:6 - thus saying that they don’t even know that which really pleases the Lord.

Just as God did not desire sacrifice for the sake of law keeping… so too, God was not pleased by the Pharisees law keeping by burdening others with rules about the Sabbath.

And because the pharisees did not understand the Scriptures - they would in turn take offense and Jesus and his followers.

1. If you do not understand the Scriptures, then you will not love Jesus.

Remember the Pharisees knew the Scriptures… they had large portions of it memorized… and yet, they took offense at Jesus and his disciples in these verses.

Jesus rooted their offense in their lack of knowledge in God’s Word.

We come to this time and time again… but we need to read the Scriptures and understand them if we wish to grow in our love for the Lord.

And when I say, we should read our Bibles… I’m not saying that we should read it out of duty… like a chore that we are dreading… Rather, when we read the Scriptures, we out to go to the word to delight in the discovery of who God is!

Ps 19 tells us that the Scriptures are

Psalm 19:10 ESV

10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

What are the most delightful things in the world?

God’s word is better!

The righteous are described as this

Psalm 1:2 ESV

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Reading the Bible isn’t to be a duty… it is to be a delight.

These are the same with the Sabbath…

The pharisees turned the Sabbath into a chore

History records two different wars in Jerusalem that were lost because the Jews refused to defend the city on the Sabbath

The Pharisees would have preferred Jesus’ disciples to go hungry and for others to suffer instead of them receiving mercy on the Sabbath.

Mark 2:27 ESV

27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Sabbath was not meant to be a chore… sabbath was given to God’s people so that they could rest and enjoy the fruit of their labor…

So too, we must go to the scriptures, not to find it burdensome. Rather we go to the Scriptures to delight in God!

But if we do not delight in the word, then we will not love Jesus.

Let’s keep reading

Matthew 12:9 ESV

9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue.

Understand, the Sabbath is Israels day of worship. They gathered, much like we do on Sundays, to worship and to read the Word… so to, on that Sabbath, Jesus entered the Synagogue for worship.

Matthew 12:10 ESV

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.

Two things I want us to notice here. Notice what they ask… and notice their motive…

They ask as if they were learners wishing to be taught by Jesus. Jesus has already taught the Pharisees about the meaning of the Sabbath… and from the surface, they seem to want to learn more...

But was their motive to actually learn? No… Matthew tells us that they asked the question so they might accuse him.

The same happens today. As we continue in our time in Matthew, we will find that there are all kinds of people who surround Jesus. Some that are genuine in their faith, and others who are not. So too, these pharisees who surrounded Jesus in the synagogue may have appeared to be disciples who wished to learn from Jesus, when in fact they were Jesus enemies who were looking to take him down.

In our own day, there are those who come to places of worship… and they will appear to be disciples who want to grow and learn. But hidden in their heart is an entirely different motive. They do not love Jesus, or his word.

2. Not everyone who learns from Jesus loves Jesus.

Understand what it means to be a true disciple and follower of Jesus. Being a disciple isn’t about being filled with mere knowledge. Being a disciple means that we grow in knowledge and love for Jesus.

If I were just to know facts about my wife… but not have any affection for her, do you think she would be impressed by me? - No

So too, Jesus doesn’t desire people who know all the facts about him… he desires those who love him and want to obey him.

I’ve met a lot of people who know a lot about the Bible over the years… I’ve met those who know way more than me! But those same people sometimes show no love for the Lord.

Our aim, as we come to the word, is not simply to learn new facts about Jesus… our aim, is to grow in our love and affection of Jesus so that we might worship him above everything else!

Disciples are not just filled with facts about the Bible… Rather, disciples imitate Jesus… they begin to look like Jesus. They listen to his words, and they don’t just file it away as trivia for the brain. But they take the word and they press it deep into their hearts so that they might be changed.

Let me illustrate it this way

There is a huge difference between learning the different functions of a car… and learning how to drive…

You need to know which pedal is the break and which one is the gas. You need to know which levers put your car in drive, and which ones turn on the wipers to clear the rain… but just because you know the many functions of a car, doesn’t mean you know how to drive…

So too, knowing about the Bible isn’t the same as learning from Jesus.

The Pharisees knew about the Scriptures

But they were far from knowing Jesus.

So here’s what I want us to consider for our SG’s

What kind of learner are we?

Are we the kind of learners who hear and obey?

Or are we the kind of learners who only hear?

Let’s keep reading the text. The pharisees have asked if it’s lawful to heal on the Sabbath, and Jesus will answer their question by asking another question.

Matthew 12:11–12 ESV

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.”

You see, the rabbinic tradition had made a provision for working on the Sabbath if it meant the saving of a life… So the answer to Jesus question would be this; all of them would lift the lamb out of the pit on the Sabbath… they understood that there was permission to do good on the Sabath for a lamb. And so Jesus says, if you can do good for a sheep on the sabbath, how much more should we do good for a person in need?

Jesus responded to there question with a question, and then he responded with an action…

Matthew 12:13–14 ESV

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.

3. Those who truly learn from Jesus will love one another.

The Law was not given to God’s people to keep them jumping through hoops in order to please God…

The Law was given for this purpose… that we would love one another, that they would do what is just, and that mercy would be given to those who were in need.

Galatians 5:14 ESV

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

If the Pharisees had understood the Law, they would have loved this man enough to show him mercy…

If the pharisees had known what was good, they would not have condemned Jesus’ disciples for plucking grain on the Sabbath.

If the Pharisees had learned the way of wisdom, then they would have loved their neighbors

But those who do not have wisdom will not love.

Those who do have not learned from Jesus, will show themselves to be lawless in the end.

That’s just what these Pharisees did for they sought to destroy Jesus… that is. They began to plan how they would kill Jesus for doing what was good.

Here, we see these men to be lawless men… claiming to keep the law, when in reality they are plotting to murder the sinless savior.

In their zeal for the law, they proved to know nothing about what the law was pointing to. Listen again to what Jesus told them.

Matthew 12:6–8 ESV

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.”

What was the temple?

it was the place were the presence of God dwelt

It was the place where man could make sacrifice in order to be made clean

it was the very expression of God’s mercy towards sinners…

And Jesus, says that he is greater than the temple…

for he was not just the place where God’s presence dwelt

he was the person in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell

He was not just the place where sacrifice would be made to be made right with God

we was the very lamb of God who took away the sins of the world

And he was not the law that heaped up more rules and sacrifices that had to be made

but he was the very sacrifice that would bring about God’s mercy for broken sinners.

Do not miss what the Pharisees missed… but instead

He gave us the law - not for a burden, but for our good

He gave us the sabbath - not for another weight, but for our rest

He gave us his Son - so don’t be offended by him, but follow him so you may have life.

Matthew 11:28–29 ESV

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.