Love and the sabbath

Well good morning

How is everyone doing

So by way of announcements

I will be out of town until Oct 2nd

But the good news is

Chaplain Heibel will be standing in for me praise God

So we don’t have to miss church Amen!

So I want to start today’s sermon with a question

what is the heart of Christianity

what is it the core fundamental belief or requirement of Christianity

And to emphasize the obvious

I know that having faith in our Lord and Savior

for the forgiveness of sins him is paramount

Basically the gospel of course that that’s part of the core message of Christianity

But besides that, what is at the core of being a Christian

And I ask this question because

Todays sermon deals a lot with brotherly love

A lot with understanding our responsibility

Towards each other along with our responsibility towards God

You know and as I was trying to come up with a an illustration for you all

Trying to think of something that we all could relate to

A certain ministry that I used to do

Really came upon me as perhaps the best example

I could think of

And so for those of you that don’t know

I used to belong to a ministry called Celebrate Recovery

And if you don’t know or maybe have never heard of this ministry

It’s basically an AA group for Christians

but it deals with anything

Such as alcoholism

Drug abuse

Sex addiction

Co-dependency issues

and on and on

And my goal was I wanted to become a counselor for this ministry

Because I wanted to serve people that are hurtin

I wanted to serve people that needed Jesus say more than the average person

But one of the most profound things I found out about this ministry

Is that its far different from your normal church going experience

I remember walking in and feeling 100% accepted

100% loved

and I didn’t feel judged at all

Something I had never felt before at a local church

And I recall having issues going back to normal church

After this experience

Because lets face it

I think a good many of us

Don’t go to church

Because we feel judged, hated, unwanted, or unwelcome

And if I had to do a case study on this type of behavior

I would simply argue

We have lost the art of loving one another

Rather than treating each other with grace

We judge

Rather than discernment and discipleship

We gossip and spew hatred from our mouth

Rather than understanding that loving God and loving others is in and of its self a fulfillment of the law

We turn our religion into a set of rules that allows us to condemn and point the finger

We have used religion as a set of rules meant to tear down

Rather than to build up

You know so

Instead of understanding that love conquers all

That acceptance and mercy is truly at the heart of Christianity

Like you will see today

Many times we have become the Pharisees of old

And so today as we get into the passage of study

I want you all to take a deep look at your own behavior towards others

I want you to truly begin to take hold of your communication style

Your means of sharing Jesus with the world

And begin to ask yourself

Am I being the Christian my Lord and Savior wanted

Or am I being the Christian that I feel should be accepted

Am I being the living embodiment of love

Or am I being the one who would show no mercy

Am I doing what it says in Galatians 6

Which says

Galatians 6:1 (NLT)

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path....

Or am I being the complete opposite?

Tough day

Lots of internal analysis

So today I want to go through three things

First I want us to understand the context of the story here

Because believe it or not,

People will try and use this as a means to discount Christianity

and so context is not only key to understanding the passage today

But also defending the word of God

Number 2, I want us understand our requirement

Towards mankind as Christians

Last I want us to understand what true mercy

Looks like

So if you would please open your Bibles to

Mark 2:23–28 NLT

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

Lets open in prayer

Number one rule again,

Context Right

So first off what I want you to do is I want you to kind of realize what Jesus is doing here

And in fact this is another one of those points that will help you understand the Bible

Because until you get this point through your head

Until you begin to understand that the New Testament

is simply an explanation of the Old Testament

or the New Testament is the fulfillment of prophecy

as seen by the writers of the New Testament

until you get this in your head

you’re not going to understand what the Bible is all about

And so uniquely what Jesus is doing here

Is he is pulling on a story

about one of the most famous kings in the Bible

and if you understand who king David is

he is infamous in Israel

as a matter fact he is revered in Israel to this day

they even have street names named after him

and if you understand prophecy

he is seen as the grandfather

or the great great great great great grandfather to the Messiah

he is basically one of the center pieces

to the Bible

to messianic prophecy

Pretty much a lot of what the Bible talks about

relies on David

and so what Jesus does here

is he pulls back

on to this particular individual

claiming or asking a question

about David’s right to violate the Levitical law

and let me help you understand exactly what the Levitical law is

and I want you to kind of pull back from last sermon

or last weeks sermon and begin to understand what Jesus is doing here

And so if you recall last time we were together

we talked about the 613 different laws

that they have to follow

according to the first five books of the Bible

and if you remember

they began to add certain things to the law

due to persecution from certain kingdoms

and they felt that they were going to be cursed by God

if they didn’t follow the law to the 28th degree

Everyone remember that?

And one of these particular laws which is found in Leviticus 24 verse 9

has to deal with the table of show bread

EXPLAIN THE TEMPLE

PICTURE OF THE TEMPLE

And so this bread that Jesus is describing here is specifically made for the priests

that work in the temple

and the only people that were allowed to eat this bread

were in fact the priests

Leviticus 24:9

Leviticus 24:9 NLT

The loaves of bread will belong to Aaron and his descendants, who must eat them in a sacred place, for they are most holy. It is the permanent right of the priests to claim this portion of the special gifts presented to the Lord.”

And so what you’re see here

In the Gospel of mark

Is Jesus pulling directly from an Old Testament story

And bringing in new revelation

Or a better understanding of what is going on here

Perhaps something that even the pharisees refused to see

Due to their own biased view of Scripture

Make sense

And I don’t wanna go too deep into it here

because we don’t have three hours to today to begin to understand

The Levitical laws

but what I want you to recognize here

and begin to understand

is that first off

David does give the bread

that was specifically meant for the priests alone

and he gives it to people that were hungry

to people they were not in the priesthood

And He gave it to them simply because they needed nourishment

They needed something to eat

Nothing more

They were hungry

Maybe starving if you get my point

And here’s a catch where I think each and everyone of us

needs to understand here

Because it has so many applicational points

Or parallels to our own lives

At no particular point did God the father condemn David for what he did

There is not a single verse in the Bible

Condemning David for what he did

And what I found unique about that

is each and every commentator that I read

hit on that particular point

being that if you broke the law

in the Old Testament

God was not shy in calling you out

and God was not shy in saying

hey you did this and therefore I’m going to do this to you

But what happens here is

You get complete silence

There’s no condemnation

there’s no punishment

nothing

So then what are we take away from here

what do we take away from this particular lesson

Because this is where Jesus

is drawing from

he drawing from this particular story

Where king David does something abnormal

but he does it for a particular reason

And look here what one commentator said about this

The spirit of the Law in respect to human need took priority over its ceremonial regulations

And another commentator

Mark (4) Over Picking Grain on the Sabbath (2:23–28)

Jesus set forth the basic principle that human need should take precedence over ceremonial laws

And what unique

is it you’re going to see Jesus

argue this same line of rationality

This same line of thinking

throughout the gospels

where human need

or human livelihood

is a part of fulfilling the law

in other words if the law is causing pain and suffering

genuine pain and suffering

then the law is not fulfilling the purpose of God

And this is most precisely answered in verse 27

Where it says that the sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath

in other words the laws were always meant to keep us from suffering

They were not meant to create suffering

And I want you to really try to begin to relate

this particular story to our own lives

How many times do we sit here

and desperately try to follow the law

desperately try to follow a moral and ethical code

desperately try to be the best Christian we can possibly be

because we are trying to gain the acceptance of God

how often do we do that?

When are we going to start to realize

that if it wasn’t for the cross

you wouldn’t have been accepted

which means because of the cross

you are accepted

And by accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior

And by the sacrifice that he provided

out of love for you

you have been accepted

you have been enrolled into the books

you are guaranteed eternity

you have been stamped and sealed by the Holy Spirit of God

and accepted into the eternal kingdom to live with Christ forever

But until we begin to figure this out

and understand exactly

what it means to be in the ever loving hands of God

we will never understand

the character of God

And if you recall last weeks message

When you begin to understand the heart of God

The reason why you live a life on the straight and narrow

When you begin to realize that we live a life bent on saying thank you

Rather than avoiding the punishment

Everything about you changes

And this is the entire point here in verses 25-27

It’s Gods requirement towards humanity

If you look at the life of Christ

The teachings of Christ

The very mercy Christ gave to each and every person he encountered

Then you have to begin to understand

That as a Christian

Your job on this earth

Your job in this life

Is not to bring down the hammer

But to bring in love

Which brings me to my last point

And do me a favor and

Go back to verse 23-24

And if you recall from my previous sermon

the Pharisees had been adding to the law,

making it nearly impossible to live an ordinary life.

Nearly impossible to be a normal person

Add to that you had the ever present

And absolutely cruel Roman empire

Crushing down on them

Murdering them

Taxing them to the point they can’t even feed their family

And here you have a people

that are suffering

that are in pain,

that just want to live a normal life

to raise their children to feed their family

And here you have a governing body

A priest hood that is supposed to be the very embodiment of God almighty

that is absolutely destroying the people in every way

I got to be honest

when I look at this story

I see men

simply eating and

Jesus our lord and savior

having to come to their defense.

Can you imagine how frustrating this would have been for him

How depressing.

Here is the creator

witnessing the abuse of his own people

to the point that his own priest

have become the cause of pain and suffering.

And this is the point that Jesus is trying to make.

My ways have never been about suffering.

My ways have never been about causing more pain.

And whats unique is that each commentator

mentioned the requirement of mans need over the law

and so you have to begin to ask yourself

Where is the mercy.

Where is the character of God that is supposed to be displayed

Within His church

within his priest hood

Where is the mirror effect

the application

where is God in all of this?!?!

Hosea 6:6 says I desire mercy not sacrifice.

Mercy is at the heart of God

And the deeper you look at the law

The more Mercy rings true

Just look at the cross

He died for you

out of mercy towards you

A sinner

And if we as a body of Christ

cannot take a story such as this

and see the calling towards mercy

then we are abandoning our God at the very forefront of battle.

God in the person Jesus

is saying here

true worship

is loving your neighbor.

True worship

is loving your family.

True worship

is treating my people with the same love I have for all of you.

And you have to begin to ask yourself

when are we

as a body of Christ

going to stop the nonesense

stop the fighting

stop the arguments

and begin to live out the requirements of the two greatest commandments

to love God and love others.

You ever wonder why we are losing ground

you ever wonder why the body of Christ is losing people,

losing in our government

in our churches

in our homes.

We have a chance to take the very heart of God

the very character of God

to this world

We have a chance

to build a community

and I encourage you

with every fiber within me,

take that opportunity and run with it.

One final passage and we will get out of here

And i know its long

But please hang on every word here

Romans 12:9–21 NLT

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all! Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

Lets close in prayer

Numbers 6:24–26 NLT

‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’