Encouragements And Warnings

~We apologize.  The audio of this week’s sermon is unavailable.~ 

The world is often divided into the “Haves” and the “Have-nots.”  Now there is a real distinction in these words, but the exact dividing line is often very subjective.  Part of the problem is the envy that is in the heart of every man.  In fact the real problem of having and not having is continuing to live with faith as we encounter them both in a multitude of ways and measures.  Even when we know the Words of God and believe they are true, this life will test our ability to trust Him.

On one hand we can see that God Himself has scattered and spread gifts in such a fashion that they are not equally distributed.  Yet, on the other hand, we see God giving a two-pronged challenge to mankind in His Word.  To the “Haves” is the challenge to be a blessing to the “Have-nots.”  But, to the “Have-nots” is the challenge to trust God and His care above and beyond the care of mankind.  In His desire to cast off God, modern man has severed one side of this prong and has instead stoked the fires of envy as an engine of social transformation.  The question we are left with is this: If such men are successful what will become of the envious masses on the other side of the Equation?  Will mankind have been made better or trapped within a net of his own making?

The words of Jesus in this passage stand as an eternal encouragement to those who do not have and an eternal warning to those who do.  Yet, it does so in a masterful way that does not reduce the “have-nots” into a raving mob seeking to “get theirs.” These very words douse the fires of envy and yet stir a very different kind of fire altogether, a fire of faith in the God of Heaven and the Day of Judgment.  Let’s look at Luke 6:20-26.

Encouraging The “Have-nots”

These instructions are basically the same as Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” in Matt. 5-7.  There are some differences in wording and in some content.  Yet, the overall meaning is the same and it is clearly a synopsis.  In Matthew, Jesus encourages people who are in 8 or 9 different kinds of situations.  But in Luke, we have less encouraging and an additional warning to those who are in the opposite situation.  The masterful touch of Jesus lies not in encouraging some and warning others.  Rather, it lies in exactly whom He calls blessed and to whom He pronounces woe.  He calls blessed and happy people that all of mankind would call cursed.  And, in the same way, He calls cursed those whom most of us would envy and think of as happy and blessed.  This strange inversion calls for deeper thinking than just following your instincts, gut, and heart.  It calls us to see things from God’s eternal perspective.  Is it possible you have envied people whom God warns of coming woe?  And is it possible you have cursed situations that God says is a blessing?  Try to actually hear what Jesus is saying rather than looking for ways to manipulate what He says in order to get “social justice.”

Jesus starts by stating that the poor are blessed because the Kingdom of God is being given to them.  Now in Matthew is qualified as the poor in spirit.  Thus it is most likely that Jesus uses the simple form her in Luke to get attention.  Blessed are those with no wealth because God is even now giving them His kingdom.  Yet, it is clear that Jesus means us to questioningly dissect such a statement.  Would God really give His kingdom to a person solely because they are poor?  What if they are a poor scoundrel who steals from all around him?  Is such a person to be given God’s kingdom?  Clearly Jesus went into further elaboration and so we find Matthew’s phrase, “poor in spirit.”  Now Poor in spirit may sound like a bad thing.  So to help us understand one might ask what spirit is in question?  It is not The Holy Spirit of God that He is pointing to.  Rather, it is a man’s own spirit.  In our modern vernacular it would be close to the phrase, “full of himself.”  It is one thing to be lacking in wealth of this world.  But it is quite another to be empty of spirit.  A poor man who rages against the rich with billows of envy surging within is not a blessed man.  We would agree, but for the wrong reasons.  He is not blessed because he is not poor enough.  God is not looking only for men who are poor in material things, but those who know and accept that their very spirit is poor and a beggar before God and fellow men.  These are the ones who were in the middle of receiving the Kingdom of God in the days of Jesus.  In fact if a man who is rich in material things of this world recognizes his poverty of spirit, he too can be blessed with this kingdom.  Later Jesus will give a warning to the rich, so let’s move on.

The second is this, Happy and blessed are those who are hungry now because they are going to be filled.  Now the first blessing had a present aspect only.  But these that follow have a present and future aspect.  Those who are hungry now are promised a future filling.  That may seem to be an empty promise, but it is one that is made by the Creator Himself.  Thus you despise it at your own peril.  Life is not about how much money you have or if you have gone hungry.  Rather, life is about where you are headed.  What you do today impacts where you end up tomorrow.  Many in this world are headed towards great hunger and they don’t even know it.  Others who despair of life today are headed towards great satisfaction.  The question is which are you headed towards?  Similar to poverty, Jesus speaks to those who are often going hungry.  This begs the same questions.  Is hunger the key to getting something from God?  Matthew lets us in on the deeper aspect of what Jesus is getting at.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  It is a horrible thing to have no food and go hungry for days on end, while others have so much they waste it.  However, there are greater things we should “hunger” for that are just as much absent from our lives.  Are you not just hungry for physical food, but for the greater things of life like righteousness, truth, and real love?  If you only labor and hunger for food then you will only find a temporary satisfaction.  But, if you hunger and thirst for the greater things that God is concerned about then you will have a great day of satisfaction ahead.  Again, this blessing may seem like a platitude that doesn’t put food in your belly now.  But then isn’t that the rub?  Can you go hungry of material things now for the greater food that God has promised to give?  Do you trust Him?

The third category is mourning.  Blessed are those who are weeping now because they will laugh in the future.  Life has a certain measure of grief for all of us, but some get much more than others.  For the grieving of this world God promises a future time of laughter ahead.  Now when you are in the midst of weeping you may not want to think of such things.  But it is not intended to make you quit weeping.  Rather it is intended to give you hope in the midst of darkest despair.  I will laugh again.  It is promised by God Himself.  In Revelation 21:4 it says, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”  Though we wish he would deal with these things today, and though we may wish to labor all day long to quash those things that make us hurt, God asks us to trust Him.  He will make it right.  He will heal the hurt.  And, He will fill our heart with laughter.  Solomon warned that the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.  He was not saying that God despises laughter.  Rather the point is where their heart wants to be.  The fool is willing to do anything to have a party and laugh.  But he often does so ignoring very sober things.  Whereas the wise recognize that this life has much grief to it and that often the laughter of fools is like the noise of wood that is in the fire.  Instead of embracing bitterness, hatred and anger, we are given the hope that God can heal even this thing that wounds us so.

Lastly, Jesus deals with the situation of being hated, excluded, or excommunicated by others.  He describes it further as being faulted and blamed, to the point that they “cast out your name as evil.”  Now here Luke adds the key phrase “for Christ’s sake.”  Thus the oppressed and outcasts of this world are not rewarded by God simply for being outcasts.  At some point this world rose up and cast out Hitler and his armies but that does not mean they will be rewarded by God.  Rather when such happens because we stand with Christ.  If you stand with God, His Word, and His commands, this world will hate you in one form or another.  The trying of your faith will be tempted to leave His side.  Whether you do so in bold rebellion or you do so in seductive twisting of His words both are leaving His side.  If you stand with Christ you will have great reward in heaven.  Notice the future is the key.  This coming day of Judgment in which God sets all things right is easy to dismiss.  Mankind has lived for thousands of years and no such day has come.  First, none of us can know exactly what each who has left this world encountered on the other side.  We can take God’s word for it or we can claim ignorance.  Second, we do so over the top of the evidence of Judgment in the past.  There is much evidence for the global flood if one has eyes to see.  There is also much history of great kingdoms and nations warned by God that they would be destroyed.  All of these have entered the dustbin of history as God said they would.  Thus, it is easy to once again dismiss these future promises as a religious means to pacify the weak.  But the truth is that such statements give us insight into the dragon that speaks them.  If I am weak and believing something that is a fairy tale, what is that to you?  Why must you ridicule my faith rather than just dismiss it?  Why must you eradicate those who believe rather than just ignore them?  Why must you silence the promises of hope rather than disbelieve them?  It is because there is a spiritual enemy that seeks to rob the world of such precious promises.  Manipulation is used precisely because they are valuable.  Will you stand with Christ, whether it is a day when the world pretends favor, or, when it rails against Christ Himself?

Warning the “Haves”

Matthew does not give this “flip side of the coin,” although it is implied.  Those who are rich, well-fed, living to party, and popular are all headed for a difficult future.  The very thing that most clamor for are the very things that lead to Judgment.  Why do we clamor so?

Jesus says, woe to the rich for they have no future help.  A time will come when they call for help but none will come.  The story of the Rich man and Lazarus is a perfect backdrop for these statements.  After death the rich man begs for help, but none is given.  In this life his wealth itself gave him power to command such things to himself.  But such things cannot help you in the life to come.  So how is the poor man better than the rich if they both can recognize these things and escape destruction?  The poor man is blessed because he sees that he is in poverty.  Life has forced him to accept that he has nothing.  He is only half way to true riches.  Once he sees that even he himself is found wanting before God, he can cry out for mercy and be saved.  But riches blind a man to his true poverty.  They surround him with a false sense of security that cannot help in the day of Judgment.  Is it possible that in this modern world those who clamor to have the wealth of the rich are clamoring for a curse?  Is it possible that even as the wealth is being taken from the rich that they are receiving a blessing?  It is high time to wake up because the Dragon is loose upon the earth and deceiving us quite skillfully.  Those who know God’s Word have no excuse.  Riches cannot save us only true poverty before God.  Is there hope for the rich?  If they recognize their true poverty and come to God as a beggar who is destitute, then yes.  James 2:5 says, “has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love him?”  What riches do you seek?

Jesus warns those who are full now because they are headed to great hunger.  In the story of the rich man thirst is the picture.  Here it is hunger.  Like a thirsty man in hell, so a time of insatiable appetite is ahead for those consumed with consuming in the here and now.  Yet, the spiritual application goes deeper.  Those who are satisfied with their own righteousness will find themselves falling short on the day of Judgment and it will be too late to plead for grace.  What are you hungry for?  Yet another question is this, What satisfies me?  Be careful because in the answers of these questions lies blessing and cursing, life and death.

Jesus moves to warn those who laugh now.  You will mourn.  Those who have laughed it up in the pleasures of this life without thought for the judgment to come will mourn on that day.  Christ is not against riches, food, and laughter.  He is warning against man’s tendency to seek such things and be satisfied with them at the expense of Truth.  The truth is that none of these things satisfy beyond a small moment of time.  They testify of themselves that they are not eternal.  Yet, men allow themselves to be blinded to the greater things that satisfy for eternity.  No matter how good your life is, you are in danger of judgment and should not let the abundance of such things blind you to this reality.

Lastly Jesus warns those who are accepted by all men.  Woe to you when all men speak well of you because they spoke well of the false prophets.  This proverbial statement is not meant to cause us to try and make sure no one speaks well of us.  Rather it is warning us of putting any trust in such well speaking.  There is a day when the righteous are spoken well of, but it is rare and short lived.  Furthermore, we are not in such a day.  The key to this is the phrase, “for Christ’s sake.”

Each of these four categories require us to use wisdom and discern the heart of God.  Thus we should be accepted among the righteous, but we should expect rejection from this world.  Jesus said elsewhere that this world would hate his true disciples because it also hated Him.  This has never changed.  Sure the world is not always directly opposed to Christ.  In fact, Scripture warns that in the last days, it will promote a false Christ through false prophets. Thus the seductive twisting of the truths of God will be used to promote an anti-christ.  The deception of the end times is even now upon us.  The antichrist is truly against Christ.  But he seductively puts himself in the place of Christ; the True Christ.  If you have ears to hear then you will hear in these words of Jesus, not a call to arms against the rich of the world.  But, rather, you will hear a call to arms against how easily your very heart is manipulated against the things of God.  You will hear the poverty of your own soul and see how desperate you are without His Grace.  Come to the True Jesus today, learn of Him, and you will have true blessing.

Critical Choices

Note:  We apologize that there is no audio for this sermon.

Earlier in the book of Luke we have seen where Jesus called different ones to follow Him and become disciples.  Here we see another aspect to this, as Jesus now picks 12 of the disciples to become His “apostles.”  We will talk more about this word.  But, suffice it to say that Jesus needed 12 men who would serve as His inner group and become the foundation of the Church once He ascended into heaven.  This is a critical choice.  Now let’s look how Jesus makes it here in Luke 6:12-18.

Taking Time To Pray

Jesus truly is a marvel when you study his life and deeds.  To those who accept Him as a real person from history, it is a marvel to understand the amazingly divine things that He did.  On the other hand, for those who find it easier to see Jesus as divine, it is amazing to see the very human things that He did.  Jesus is at a big transitional point in His life and ministry.  He has some critical decisions before Him.  The 12 men He picks will play a critical role in the plan of God.  In fact, to the uninformed person looking on, the choice of Judas Iscariot may appear to have been a bad one.  But we will come back to that in a moment.

The key at this point is to first see that Jesus spends all night praying about this decision.  Why would Jesus pray?  Doesn’t He know all things?  Isn’t He God?  Part of the mystery is solved in seeing the importance of relationship to God.  Throughout eternity past the Son has always existed in a unique unity with the Father and Spirit.  Even though the incarnation has switched things up a bit, the Son still is motivated by relationship.  In fact the glimpse we have of His time in the Garden of Gethsemane may help us to see that perhaps one of the things Jesus was doing that night was agonizing over the choice of Judas.  Here is the good news.  In Christ, we are invited to enter into this eternal, relationship of God.  Sometimes in our rush to get results we can miss the importance of the process.  In fact, we can forget that of the results God desires in life, relationship is the most important. So why should we pray?

First of all, Jesus sets the example here.  Relationship with God is important.  Even if we can handle “it,” God wants us to spend time talking things through with Him.  If He “needed” to talk with His Father then how much more do we?  Are we greater than our master?  To follow the example of Jesus is to say, “I trust your way rather than mine.”  Of course, prayer is cumbersome and difficult at first.  But over time all relationships become more natural and the communication becomes easier.

Another reason to pray is that we are told to pray throughout the Bible.  Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;  and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  In this passage we are told to not let ourselves be distracted by the multitude of cares and concerns we face in this life.  Rather, we are to turn to God in prayer.  The end result of this process is God’s peace.  This is different from having peace with God.  A believer can be at peace with God in the sense of not being His enemy any more, but still lack the inner serenity that God wants us to find in times of relationship with Him.  In fact this verse may seem to be stating that God’s peace surpasses all understanding.  This is definitely true, but not the point of the verse.  It is actually saying that having the peace of God is something far greater than having perfect understanding.  Think about it.  Most of the time, we want God to make everything perfectly clear.  But God is saying that He wants us to have something better.  But doesn’t lack of understanding cause lack of peace?  It definitely contributes to it.  But it is not the cause.  The cause is a broken relationship between man and God.  The more we go to God in prayer and agonize over our decisions and life, the more we will sense His peace in our hearts.  Having the peace of knowing our Father has heard us and has everything worked out is superior to having full understanding.  It is what protects our hearts from doubts and making decisions based on fear and fleshly desires.

Why pray?  Prayer is me saying, “God, you are my answer.”  It declares what your source of wisdom is.  If I never pray about my decisions than I am revealing that He is not the source of my decisions.  What is your source?  I am able to make all my decisions without God’s input, whether in prayer or reading the Word.  But is this wise?  It clearly is not.  Prayer is that means by which I move the source of my decision making from my flesh (my understanding, desires, fears, etc…) to God Himself.  My source of wisdom becomes a spiritual source.  But not just any spiritual source (e.g. demonic or satanic).  The very same mind that created all the cosmos calls me into relationship and is the source of my decisions.  Wow!

Lastly, prayer exercises our faith.  Like a muscle, our faith can atrophy from lack of use.  The more we learn to turn quickly to God in prayer, the stronger we become in our faith.  But do not confuse faith with presumptuous choices.   Thus Jesus, who of all people could have presumed that He could make a good decision, goes to His Father in prayer.  I don’t pretend to know what that night’s prayer looked like exactly.  But I do know that we would be wise to follow Jesus in this.

Calling His Apostles

Now Jesus had many people who wanted to learn of Him and were His disciples.  But He needed 12 men into whom He would reproduce Himself.  Just as God is working to help us become like Jesus, so Jesus took time to reproduce Himself into these men.  Thus the choice involves discerning who would serve Him best from among a larger pool of disciples.  This reminds me of being picked in grade school games.  However, it is clear that Jesus wasn’t picking like we tend to do.  He wasn’t picking His best friends, or the ones who were the studs.  Rather He picked some people that many would scratch their heads over.

Now, the word “apostle” literally means “sent one.”  The person sent was commissioned to be a representative of the one sending.  Thus the apostles are authorized to speak on behalf of Jesus in the years after His death, resurrection, and ascension.  They are enlisted to become the ambassadors of a heavenly King. 

They would also become part of the foundation of the Church.  Scripture gives us this picture of a foundation being laid in several ways.  On one hand Jesus is the ultimate foundation on which everything else that hopes to stand must be built.  In this sense Jesus is the only foundation.  However, another picture that is used would be more like an arch.  Ephesians 2:19-20 says, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.  Here the importance of the prophets and apostles is underlined.  But the uniqueness of Jesus is upheld by referring to Him as the chief cornerstone.   It is the critical stone that holds the others in place much like the wedge at the top of an archway.  Leaning upon each other these stones become the strength that holds up everything above it.  In fact, Revelation 21 points out that the New Jerusalem that comes down from heaven will have 12 foundations named after each apostle.

Another aspect of the people Jesus picks that day is the diversity of the group.  One one hand you have some who are brothers and therefore very close (Peter & Andrew, James & John).  Also these four worked together in the fishing business.  Thus they had learned to work together and appreciate each other.  You have some who were blue collar workers and others who were white collar workers (Matthew the tax collector).  Then we have differing political views.  Matthew as a tax collector was clearly not a rebel.  Yet, we also have Simon who was a Zealot.  This group was a “freedom fighting” group that often operated in terrorist-type ways.

Lastly, we have the one who would betray Jesus in the end.  It has been noted that Judas seems to be the only one from Judea.  Why would Jesus pick Judas?  Was it a mistake?

Clearly it was not a mistake from God’s perspective.  However, it has been noted that the real question is not, “Why did God pick Judas?”  But, rather, “Why did God pick me?”  Don’t we all have the wavering faithfulness inherent in our heart?  Haven’t we all betrayed the Truth of Jesus at one time or another?

Verses 17-18 do not show any great ceremony.  One moment Jesus is calling 12 men to be His apostles and the next minute He is knee deep in ministry.  These apostles go from being a part of the crowd to being with Jesus.  This “one the job” training may not be what they expected that morning.  Any new job is cumbersome at first because you are clueless.  However, I’m sure these guys felt worse than clueless that day.  Yet note the words “with them.”  Jesus, who is Immanuel “God with Us,” comes with His apostles and ministers with them by His side.  Couldn’t He do it all by Himself?  If by “it” you mean heal people then, “yes, he could.”  But God wanted to minister to man in the face of man’s spiritual enemy with 12 weak individuals whom He was turning into Christ-like warriors.  They would participate in His glory and be exalted to a high position within God’s Kingdom.

When we do have a sense of what God wants us to do, we are going to have to learn to trust Him.  We don’t have perfect knowledge of how things will end up.  So why not choose to have perfect peace instead?  Relationship.  Trust.  Peace.  God’s choices for us personally or for us as mankind can be trusted as He wraps up this stage of History and brings in His millennial kingdom.

Lord of the Sabbath II

Last week we saw how Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, which means He is the authority on what it’s purpose was about.  Jesus rejected the “splitting hairs” tradition of the rabbis because they were dead wrong on what Sabbath was all about.  Today we are going to see a second issue that led to complaints to how Jesus kept the Sabbath.  This begins in Luke 6:6.

Often the differing schools of interpretation within Judaism liked it when Jesus contradicted or disproved their opponents.  However, Jesus had an ability to do this to all of them.  That is why they scrutinized him so much.  They needed something they could use to discredit this “dangerous man.”  Let’s see how Jesus responded to this scrutiny.

Jesus is Scrutinized

In verses 6 and 7 we are given a scene at a synagogue, much like a church is today.  In this scene the Scribes and Pharisees are watching Jesus like a hawk.  What would he do?  There is a difference from watching out for a brother and watching someone like a bird of prey.  This scene is similar to the political maneuverings we see in our own day.  In fact, the “smart” politicians take out their opponents before they can get any following.  Yet, this is not the Spirit of the Lord. 

There happens to be a man there who has a paralyzed hand.  It is called “withered” because the paralysis had shriveled and curled the hand up leaving it useless.  Most likely this man heard Jesus would be there and had come hoping to be healed.  It is possible he is there because the religious leaders are creating this trap.  Either way, they are hoping Jesus will heal the man because then they can accuse Him of breaking the Sabbath Law.  It is almost surreal that they could on one hand know that He could heal and yet on the other hand still accuse Him.

Now this leads up to the issue.  There is nothing wrong with testing teachers, prophets, and healers.  The Bible tells believers to “Test all things.”  God’s children are not called to be gullible sheep who are easily duped.  Not everything that purports to be a miracle from God really is.  However, we must learn to test properly.  These religious leaders have created a improper test.  They do not test Jesus against the Scriptures themselves.  But rather, they test Him against their own traditions based off of the Scriptures.  This is a dishonest test.  It is not just that they had a different interpretation.  But at the heart of it, they had added things you couldn’t do on the Sabbath because of their own wisdom.  All things must be “properly” tested against “Scripture alone.”  We shouldn’t test it against one verse pulled out of context.  Nor should we test it against a twisted and tortured understanding of a text.  Often, we might find ourselves coming to the conclusion that we don’t have enough information.  It is not clear.  In those cases it would be better to leave it between that person and God, rather than making a public judgment.

Jesus Responds with Teaching and Healing

Verses 8-11give the response of Jesus.  It is important to notice that, in the Bible, Jesus is not a rebel who was always trying to “stick it to the man.”  Rather, He was interested in Truth and rescuing Israel from the path that their religious leaders were taking them down.

Now we are told that Jesus knew their thoughts.  Whether words had been said, He knew what they were hoping for.  Remember that the same is true today.  Christ knows what is in your mind and heart.  He knows whether you are looking for excuses to walk away from Him or if you are hoping for a miracle.  You most likely aren’t struggling over whether Jesus should heal on the Sabbath or not.  However, you might have things against Jesus and His Word that are unspoken in your mind and heart.  Jesus could have not healed the guy, or did it later when they weren’t around.  Instead he boldly met their challenge.

First Jesus challenged their biblical understanding.  Just like Isaiah 1 has God calling out to Israel, “Come let us reason…” so Jesus takes time to reason with the “wise men” of any age.  He does so to draw us away from lies and towards a love of the Truth.  He asks two questions.  “Is it lawful to do good or evil on the Sabbath?”  Now doing evil on the Sabbath is clearly wrong because it is wrong on any day.  The Sabbath law was given, in part, as a check against the “evil” of working 7 days a week trying to increase yourself without acknowledging a need for God’s help.  This law helped to check the evil heart and point man to his greater need and greater supply.  We may not be under the Sabbath law today as Christians, but we still need to listen to the wisdom of God behind this law He gave Israel.  However, on another level this question begs another question.  If it is in your power to help someone in need and you do nothing, isn’t that evil?  Jesus could heal.  How could he walk by a man who wanted healed and do nothing because it is the Sabbath day?  Clearly he should do something.

Now there are many who use this line of reasoning against God Himself.  “How can God sit in heaven and not fix the bad stuff in this world?  If He exists then He must be evil.”  Of course this line of reasoning would be true if God had done nothing.  But the testimony of the Scriptures and of many throughout history is that God has helped us, just not in the way we demand he do it.  A common problem in helping people is that sometimes people don’t want to be “helped.”  God has helped mankind, but most won’t receive it.  What a tragedy.  He asks the same question again but used the word heal.  Which is lawful to heal or destroy?  The word translated as save in some versions would mean to heal in this context.  Jesus did not come to destroy men, but to bring healing and salvation to their lives.  This is the heart of God, especially in the Sabbath law that He gave Israel.

Jesus has the man come and stand by Him.  Apparently no one wants to debate with Jesus.  So Jesus then tells the man to stretch out his hand and it is healed.  They don’t care about the reasoning of Jesus.  They are convinced that they are right and only watch the outward actions of Jesus so that they can condemn Him.  Jesus is not only the justifier of His disciples, but He is also the healer of them too. He courageously steps forth and heals a man even though He will be maligned for it.  In fact this is a hallmark of Jesus and God.  God has the courage to stand by the weak and poor of this world who will embrace Him.  Even though the strong, rich, and wise mock such a band of people.  Whose side are you on?

The last verse of this section says that the Pharisees and Scribes were filled with madness.  Literally they lost their mind and tried to figure out what to do with Him.  When we contrast this with the passage in Acts 2, it begs another question, “What are you filled with?”  Am I filled with a madness or with the pure, Holy Spirit of God?  When God is doing a beautiful and wonderful work of salvation or healing, what am I filled with?  At the Red Sea the children of Israel were filled with joy and praise as a way was made through the waters.  However, Pharaoh’s heart was filled with rage and rushed into the trap bent on destroying Israel.  Today, God is drawing together a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.  He is filling them with His Spirit and faith.  However, others are becoming more and more maddened by such archaic beliefs.  We live in a mad world, but in the midst of that madness we are called to be a bold and courageous healer and savior with Jesus.  Let’s stand with the Lord of the Sabbath and rest in His peace!

Lord Sabbath II audio

The Lord of the Sabbath

Today we are going to look at Luke 6:1-5.  At issue in this portion of Scripture is a legal issue regarding the Sabbath day under the Law of Moses.  Now the term “Sabbath” means to rest or cease an activity.  It is a reference to the Creation, in which God created all things in six days.  The seventh day becomes the day on which He ceased the activity of creation or rested from creating.  This is where we get our idea of a 7 day week with at least one day off for rest.

There is no indication that this was ritually observed before the flood.  But in the Law of Moses God commands Israel to do no work on the seventh day.  In fact the Old Testament refers to these days of rest as something God was giving Israel.  They were God’s rests that He was giving to Israel.  In other words, by resting on this day and worshipping God they were demonstrating their trust in God to take care of them.  The natural desire to keep working out of fear for the future is counteracted with God’s offer of rest.  If they trusted Him He would ensure that they had enough.  Thus Sabbath day was intended to not just be a day of physical rest, but also a day of emotional, psychological rest.  However, it is in the New Testament that we begin to see that this day of rest also has a spiritual application.  Thus Scripture declares that there is “no peace for the wicked.”  (Isaiah 57:21)  The wicked may be able to rest physically and even emotionally.  But spiritually they would have no rest or peace with God.

So let’s look at this event and see who Jesus really is.

Picking Food On The Sabbath

In verses 1-2 we are told that it is a Sabbath day and that Jesus and His disciples walked through a grain field.  The disciples were picking grain, rubbing it in their hand to remove the outer shell, and eating it.  No doubt the discussion with the Pharisees takes place when they reach a town, either outside of it or inside.  They probably see the group approach from out of the fields and notice the “infraction” in the hands of the disciples.  Now we might be tempted to think that the problem is one of stealing.  However, in Israel, as long as you weren’t trying to harvest for yourself, it was not considered stealing to pick a fruit or pick some grain on your way through your neighbor’s fields.  In fact all of the land of Israel technically belonged to God.  He had delegated authority over the land to the tribes who in turn divided it among the family clans.  Thus there was a concept of private property.  But, it was more like a manager status.  The “owner” was the one who had delegated authority over the property.

No, the problem here is not stealing, but rather that what they are doing is classified as work by the teachers of Israel.  Now clearly this is a stretch of the meaning of the word work.  But over the years the teachers of Israel had developed a complex system of things that were considered work and things that were exceptions.  The act of picking the grain and the act of rubbing it in their hands were both unapproved activities.  Now this form of legal nit-picking is clearly not a thing that God likes.  When we do this kind of thing we lose sight of the original intent of the law.  God had a purpose in the Sabbath law, which was being buried under an avalanche of things you couldn’t do.  However the opposite can be a problem as well.  We can use the nit-picking of others to justify total disregard for the law.  God is not a fan of that either.  The Law has a purpose and should be obeyed.  However, the spirit (purpose) of the law can be lost when we devolve into this form of legal nit-picking.  Thus the original purpose of a speed limit was to keep traffic moving at a safe speed, not make money off of people who don’t have cruise control.

Part of the problem can be described with the term “mission-creep.”  Originally this had to do with a military mission.  It was common to have initial successes that lead to additional objectives being added.  Over time the addition of objectives can lead to losing sight of the original mission or it can lead to objectives that directly thwart the primary objective.  This happens in legal settings where the original intent of the law gets lost in attempts of politicians to push the envelope of what the words might mean for us today.  Israel had experienced “tradition-creep.”  Over time they had built up a tradition of what could or couldn’t be done on the Sabbath that was not in the Bible.  The traditions had taken on the same force as Scripture and lost touch with the original purpose of God.  The purpose of the Sabbath was to be a blessing to man, not a straight-jacket that put him in fear at every turn.

Now it would be easy to say that the Pharisee’s problem is that they are judging the disciples.  But that is too simplistic.  Yes, Matthew 7:1 says, “Judge not that you be not judged.”  But that verse goes on to describe that the purpose of this statement is to get us to judge ourselves first so that then we will have the right spirit and ability to help our brother.  In John 7:24 Jesus says, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”  God wants us to make good and proper distinctions in life.  Yet, he doesn’t want us to have a critical spirit of others while having the opposite spirit towards ourselves.  This type of prideful and spiteful judgment is displayed everyday online in the comments section of an article.  It is difficult to wade through the blatant “I’m right-You’re wrong” nonsense that goes on.  So finding that balance and learning to make good judgments is important and godly.

Jesus Justifies His Disciples

In verses 3-5 Jesus gives His response to the Pharisees and it has two basic points.  Now, let me just say that it is nothing new to be criticized by others.  Sometimes we should be criticized, yet, often critics go too far.  The important thing for believers is that we recognize that Jesus is the one who justifies us (He is also the one who judges us.) 

Now the first point Jesus makes is to come down to their level.  They live for legal arguments, rabbinical precedents, and scriptural anecdotes.  Jesus reminds them of just one of the places in the Old Testament where an exception is made for one of God’s laws.  If there were exceptions being made then God’s original purpose could not have been to create a police state where everyone is forced to live in fear of getting caught breaking any one of a swelling body of traditions.  Neither was God wanting to create a society of people trying to catch each other.  Jesus could have skipped this argument because His second one completely wins the argument.  However, it is important for us to think about this.  Now the Pharisees knew that there were exceptions in the law.  In fact, they had their own favorite loop-holes.  Yet, in many places the Law was not as tight as their traditions had made it.

The particular story Jesus refers to has to do with David running for his life from King Saul.  Without going into too much detail (you can read the story in 1 Samuel 21), David goes to the tabernacle looking for some food and weapons.  The only food available is “holy” bread that had been removed from the Holy place.  Technically only the priests of Aaron should eat this bread.  Yet, the priest lets David have the food as long as he is ceremonially clean.  In this story we see that human need took precedent over a ritual observance.  The ritual of the bread was important and should be obeyed.  Yet, its main purpose was to symbolically teach Israel about the holy bread of God (a picture of Jesus).  When human need or human life was on the line, the ritual could be stretched.  Thus we see the priest doing his best to keep the ritual (“are you ceremonially clean?”), and yet, not overlooking David’s need in a time of persecution.

We see this principle of the priority of human life over ritual throughout the Old Testament.  We also see the priority of God’s purpose over the letter of the Law.  David speaks of this when he says in Psalm 51, “You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burn offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise.”  David is not advocating lawlessness.  However, he is recognizing that God really wanted people who had sacrificed themselves spiritually.  The animals were only a symbol and a way of expressing faith in God.  Thus God’s Law of the Sabbath had an original purpose.  There is purpose and scope to all of the Laws of God and the person who tries to turn this passage into a license for disregarding them is being foolish.

The second argument is a form of “pulling rank.”  Jesus basically says that He is in the authority over the Sabbath Law.  His use of the term “son of man” is definitely referring to himself.  However, it is also a reference to Daniel 7.  Throughout the Old Testament “son of man” is a way of saying “human.”  However, in Daniel 7, Daniel sees a particular human (son of man) who comes to God and receives the Kingdom that lasts forever.  Thus “son of man” is a messianic title.  The Messiah is lord of the Sabbath.  In fact, the argument can be made from Scripture that it is Jesus who gave the Sabbath Law to Moses in the first place.  Jesus is not saying, “He who makes the Laws can break the laws.”  What He is saying is that the maker of the Law is the One who you look to do “interpret” it, not rabbinical ideas and thoughts.  Moses demonstrated this during the desert.  God had not given him every law all at once.  When a situation came before Moses, he would go to God and pray for an answer.  If God answered it would become a part of the Law.  If not, then it would not.  You do not add to nor subtract from God’s word.  Instead of waiting for the Messiah to make problem situations clear, they had plunged ahead in their own wisdom.  Jesus is basically saying, “I made this law and my intention was not to bust people for doing what these disciples are doing here.”

Now let me close by just challenging believers today.  Jesus is your justifier.  Sometimes those who criticize you are totally unjustified and you want to tear into them. However, you will not change their minds and only fill your heart with evil desires and thoughts.  Let Jesus be your justifier.  Learn to trust Him and stand with Him.  Our country is becoming more and more hostile towards those who try to stand with Jesus.  Just know that Jesus is your defense.  If you stand with Him, you will stand in the end.  But if we retreat from Jesus because of the criticism of others, then we actually cut ourselves off from the very one who can justify us.  There are times when we need the criticism of others.  God sometimes uses the negative feedback we get from others to show us that there is a problem.  However, in both these cases, we need to look back to Jesus and work this out in our own hearts before Him.

Lord of Sabbath Audio