Mark 2:23-3:6

Well, today we're going to be looking at the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3 in Mark.

! And we've seen this series of confrontations that Mark records for us that Jesus had with the Pharisees.

And there are five of them. Typically, people would say things that way, but we're going to address the last two together because it's topical in that way.

I hope you know that the chapter and verse numbers are not inspired in the Word of God.

And so, if you'll allow, I'm going to go from the end of 2 into the beginning of 3.

So let's read together, beginning in verse 23, chapter 2.

One Sabbath, he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

And the Pharisees were saying to him, look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?

And he said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry?

He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence,

which it is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him.

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

So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.

Again, he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.

And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

And he said to the man with the withered hand, come here.

And he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?

But they were silent.

And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, stretch out your hand.

He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for the great blessing of getting to be together here today,

for the blessing of a community of faith, your church.

And we thank you for your word, which is a great gift to us as a guide for all holiness.

And we thank you for your spirit, who works in us to understand what it is your word would communicate to us this day.

Both to know what it means and how to apply it to our living.

And we pray, Father, by your spirit, that you will have your way with us this morning.

And we pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

So we've seen the kind of the interaction so far through chapter 2 between the Pharisees, the Pharisees of the scribes, the scribes,

these religious elite of the day, and Jesus.

And you begin to note as they're following him, there's a lot of record that the reason that they were following him

was not to believe in him, but rather to accuse him.

They were looking for accusations to stack up against him.

And you see that happening here again.

We see them following him through the grain fields, asking him accusatory questions.

Not honest questions, but questions seeking ways to accuse him.

We see it again in chapter 3, verse 2, right?

They ask him again this question that they might accuse him.

And then we see them immediately after this interaction in verse 6, going and conspiring with another sect of the Jews

that were particularly kind to Herod called the Herodians to see how it is that they could destroy Jesus.

And their major point of accusation was that he was blaspheming, that he was saying he was God.

And they were right.

They caught at least that.

He was in fact saying he was God.

And it would have been blasphemy if Jesus himself wasn't in fact God.

So you see this constant accusation being railed against him.

And here he does something incredibly shocking.

Previously in chapter 2, verse 10, he has claimed that he has the power to forgive sin,

which would have equated him with God.

Here he calls himself the Lord even of the Sabbath.

This would have been a massive claim to make for them.

And certainly he is.

John chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, my favorite account of Jesus coming into the world says,

John 1:1–3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

He made the Sabbath.

Colossians 1.16 furthers that.

Paul writes,

By him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,

all things were created through him and for him.

And so he certainly is the Lord of the Sabbath.

But in order to understand the shock that this kind of phrase would have been to them,

we must first understand how the Pharisees viewed and how they kept the Sabbath.

It was certainly wrong the way that they did.

A man named Alfred Eidersheim wrote a book called The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,

which I did not read, but I gleaned a bunch of stuff from,

in which he researches, studies the Talmud, which was an old document, came after the days of Jesus,

but was written to sum up the laws that were being kept by the apostate Jews at this time.

And he brings some understanding to what the Sabbath meant for them.

Now the Sabbath for them would have been celebrated from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.

So this is the 24-hour period of time, and there were many, many laws that they had put in place.

The intent there was to prevent, originally, them from sinning at all,

from breaking what the Sabbath was really meant for.

But these new laws, called hedge laws, have become the new form of worship.

As I said to you before, the Pharisees at this time numbered about 6,000 people

among the millions that existed in this day.

They were the religious elite, at least in their own minds,

and they held a standard over everybody else.

So listen just to some of the things.

This is just a few.

In the Talmud, there are 24 chapters designated to this.

One rabbi said he spent two and a half years trying to understand the minutiae of the laws that existed at this time.

So get this.

You couldn't travel more than 3,000 feet.

3,000 feet.

Some say you can't go more than 2,999 steps just in case you wouldn't take that last step and be found in sin.

No burden could be carried, so no weight could be picked up that weighed more than a dried fig.

Or half a fig carried two times.

It wasn't that lenient.

If you put an olive in your mouth and rejected it because it was bad,

you couldn't put another whole olive in the mouth because your palate had already tasted the flavor of the olive.

If you threw an object in the air and caught it with the other hand, it was a sin.

If you caught it in the same hand, it wasn't.

A tailor couldn't carry his needle.

The scribe couldn't carry his pen.

A pupil couldn't carry his books.

Wool couldn't be dyed.

Nothing could be sold.

Nothing could be bought.

Nothing could be washed.

No fire could be lit.

Cold water could be poured on warm water, but warm couldn't be poured onto cold.

I don't know why.

You could not bathe for fear that when the water fell off of you, it might wash the floor,

which would have been considered work.

If a candle was lit, you couldn't put it out.

If it wasn't lit, you couldn't light it.

Chairs couldn't be moved because they might make a rut.

They might dig into the ground.

Women couldn't look in a glass, or they might find a white hair and be tempted to pull it out.

Women couldn't wear jewelry because jewelry weighed more than a dried fig.

A radish couldn't be left in salt because it would make it pickle, and that's work.

You could use only enough ink for two letters.

Not letters written to somebody, but two letters.

You could write your initials, I suppose.

And these things like this go on and on and on and on for 24 chapters.

In the Talmud.

Jesus said of the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23, verses 4 through 7,

Matthew 23:4–7

They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders.

But they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.

Religious ornaments.

And they love the place of honor at feasts, and the best seats in the synagogues,

and greetings in the marketplaces, and being called rabbi by others.

They had created this false, superficial religion that they wanted to bear on the outside,

as Jesus called them, whitewashed tombs full of dead people's bones.

And they lorded this over people.

They themselves could not keep the Sabbath.

Recall the way they prescribed it.

Recall that they could only travel 3,000 feet.

But look, at the very beginning of our text,

they're traveling through the grain fields.

And who's following them?

The Pharisees.

They accused the disciples of plucking heads of wheat in order to eat.

Notice they don't accuse them of walking more than 3,000 steps.

Because they themselves were guilty of even that.

Do we not have many amongst us that are pharisaical?

We would do well as we contemplate the way they treated the Sabbath

to see how it is that we are often pharisaical in other things.

Casting judgment where judgments not do.

Now the Sabbath, as it was meant to be observed,

was first instituted in Genesis 2, verses 1-3.

Genesis 2:1–3

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done,

and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.

Because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in the creation.

In Exodus chapter 20, beginning in verse 8, we can read,

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

And 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 in your gates.

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.

The Sabbath day in its entirety was meant to be a day where you did not work.

It's very common in this day to work every single day of the week.

Again, trying to provide for yourself off the land,

off the fruit of your own labor,

and you work.

God gave to them a day where they were to not work.

In fact, where we get Sabbath,

the original Hebrew word,

simply means to cease.

What this day was set apart from.

To cease from work.

Why?

Why did He do this?

It was meant, firstly,

as a mercy.

To God's people.

To rest.

Rest is good for us.

Our bodies are frail,

and they're failing.

We need restorative rest.

But primarily,

primarily it was given to us

as a reminder.

In Exodus chapter 31,

Exodus 31:12

verse 12 and 13,

we see this record,

and the Lord said to Moses,

you are to speak to the people of Israel and say,

above all you shall keep my Sabbaths.

For this is a sign between me and you

throughout your generations

that you may know that I,

the Lord,

sanctify you.

It was meant to serve as a reminder in this way.

A sign.

A covenant sign.

A wedding ring,

if you will.

Of a reminder of the relationship

between God and His people.

To what end?

Right?

That I, the Lord,

sanctify you.

That it is my doing on your part

to make you perfect.

That you cannot achieve favor with God

on your own.

But that I work in you

to will and to work

for my good pleasure.

This is what the Sabbath

was meant to represent for them.

That they ceased laboring.

Both in the physical realm,

but to remind them

that by no effort of their own

could they labor their way to God.

This was a relationship

wrought by Him in grace.

And therefore kept by Him in grace.

Colossians 2, 16 and 17.

We see some inspired commentary.

Paul writes,

Let no one pass judgment on you

in questions of food and drink

or with regard to a festival

or a new moon or a Sabbath.

These are a shadow

of the things to come.

But the substance belongs

to Christ.

So for the Jews,

the Sabbath was meant

to remind them of this reality

and point them to

the final work of Christ

on the cross.

Who would come for them

and spill His blood.

Bear the wrath of God

that they might have rest.

See that further in Hebrews 4.

The writer of Hebrews

beginning in verse 9 says,

So then there remains

a Sabbath rest

for the people of God.

For whoever has entered

God's rest

has also rested from His works

as God did from His.

You see that connection for us?

Remember when we studied

Nehemiah recently

in chapter 8, verse 31.

One of the commitments

that the people of God make

as they hear the Word of God

read to them

and realize that they had sinned

in forgetting the Sabbath

was that they would protect

that covenantal sign

between them and God

by keeping the Sabbath day.

If you recall,

I've said to you

that this is when

the Pharisees,

this sect of Judaism

actually began.

Back in the days

of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Men who became committed

to helping the Jewish people

keep the Sabbath holy

and oh how it was distorted

across the next couple of hundred years.

He says in verse 27

of chapter 2,

Jesus says,

The Sabbath was made for man,

not man for the Sabbath.

You see how it was meant

to serve the people of God.

And He drives this point

by telling a story,

reminding them

of the story of David.

If you'd like to later,

you can read about it

in 1 Samuel chapter 21.

1 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

And He says to them

very sarcastically

at the beginning

because these people

would have read.

He knew that answer.

The Pharisees had read

the Old Testament.

They were very familiar with it.

So when He says,

Have you never read

what David did?

He's being tongue-in-cheek

with them.

When he was in need

and was hungry,

he and those who were with him,

how he entered

the house of God

in the time of Abiathar,

the high priest,

and ate the bread

of the presence,

which is not lawful

for any but the priest to eat,

and also gave it

to those who were with him.

So what is the point

of what he's saying

with this example?

Now if you read

in 1 Samuel chapter 21,

1 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

you will find

that the encounter

with David and the priest

was not with the priest,

Abiathar.

Don't be confused by that.

This is a consistent book.

The prominent high priest

in this day

was Abiathar.

They would have known

that as a timeline for them.

Jesus is marking off

when it happened,

not who David interacted with.

He interacted instead

with Abiathar's predecessor,

Ahimelech.

And he goes to him.

He's been driven out

as the proper heir

to the throne by Saul.

He's been driven out

of Israel,

and he is gone,

excuse me,

Jerusalem,

and he's hungry.

He didn't have time

to even take a weapon.

In fact,

if you read in here

as he's looking for a weapon,

Ahimelech just happens

to have the spear of Goliath.

He's got a knife

stored away.

And it's pretty cool.

This is the point

at which David takes it back.

He says,

that weapon will do.

There's no other weapon like it.

I'll take that one.

So he's driven out.

He doesn't have food,

and all of his accompaniment

with him

doesn't have a way to eat.

And so what he's offered here,

as he asks for it,

is the showbread.

The bread of the presence

is what that literally means.

And this would have been

twelve loaves

that were set at a table

in the temple of God.

And they were meant

to represent

that God was inviting

the tribes of Israel

to come and feast with Him.

That's what these things represented.

And they were replaced

every seven days.

The old bread was taken out.

New, hot, warm bread

was brought back in

on the Sabbath.

This was the day

that this took place.

And that food was given

to the priests.

They were allowed to eat it,

but it was unlawful for others

to eat that bread

that was given

to David and his company.

It's likely that this was

actually the Sabbath day,

which is a really neat connection

to what we're talking about here.

As we see the disciples

walking through fields

and picking heads of grain,

which was a lawful thing

for them to do.

They were allowed to do that.

The sojourner was allowed to gather.

We think of roads.

If you think of driving

through wheat fields

in the Midwest,

we'd have a road

and then some ditches

and then a fence.

Not so here.

These would have just been paths

that would have crisscrossed

these wheat fields.

And so as they're traveling

from one place to another

and were hungry,

the sojourner was allowed

to pick heads.

You certainly weren't allowed

to go out and start harvesting

somebody else's wheat,

but what you could gather

with your hands

and eat as you went

was permissible for you.

So it's a higher thing.

It's a more atrocious thing

that David and his men

were doing

versus what they're being accused

of doing here

on the Sabbath.

That more than likely

on the Sabbath

in David's day,

they took a bread

that was forbidden

for them to eat.

The high priest

gave it to them.

In Matthew 12,

reading of the same account,

verses 5-8,

Jesus says,

Think about that.

They had created hedge laws

that would have prevented

the priests

from doing their priestly duty

on the Sabbath.

They couldn't lift anything,

right?

One dried fig

or half a fig twice.

That's what they were

permitted to lift.

The very work

that was being done

by the priests of God

was wrong

in the Pharisees' mind.

The point that he makes

for us in Matthew 12.

And so see what he goes on

to say in Matthew 12,

Matthew 12:7

verse 7,

And if you had known

what this means,

I desire mercy

and not sacrifice.

You would not have

condemned the guiltless.

He cares about the heart

of the matter

more than the outward

appearance of it.

Right?

The Sabbath itself

was meant to be

a reminder

of the mercy of God

to His people.

And He wants them

then to practice

mercy

on the Sabbath.

Not to disregard it

and replace it

with some hypocritical law,

some details,

some outward appearances

that would make somebody

appear righteous,

but He wanted them

to actually be

righteous.

And so that's what's

going on here.

That's what the questioning

is being asked.

The Sabbath served man

as the covenant side

of God's mercy

to His people.

And the reason

we're treating this text

together going into

chapter 3

is whether or not

it happened back to back.

I'm presuming

that it did.

But Mark certainly

recorded it for us

back to back

because I think

this next incident

was a test

of what he had just

taught the Pharisees

at the end of chapter 2.

The things he has

just said to them,

he then goes

into the temple

and notice

that he sees a man

with a withered hand.

He knows that they're

standing around

to accuse him.

He brings the man

to him.

Verse 3,

he says,

come here.

And he said to them,

to the Pharisees,

is it lawful on the Sabbath

to do good or to do harm,

to save life or to kill?

But they were silent.

And he looked around

at them with anger.

And I think the reason

he was angry

is because he was trying

to teach them this lesson

and they were missing it.

And then he grieved.

Great grief

over their hardness

of heart.

So this lesson

that he's been trying

to teach them,

they missed it

all together.

The same record

of this account

in Matthew 12

from verse 9-12

says,

He went on from there

and entered the synagogue.

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?

And here's his response

as recorded in Matthew.

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?

So this is

Pharisaical people,

Which of you

will not do some work

if one of your poor sheep

falls into a pit?

In verse 12 he says,

Of how much more value

is a man

than a sheep?

So it is lawful

to do good

on the Sabbath.

Jesus came to

fulfill the law.

Not abolish it,

to fulfill it,

but to fulfill it

in the proper way,

the way in which

it was set out.

So he came

to deliver mercy

on the Sabbath day,

to see it

for what it was

meant for,

to know that it was

made for man

and not the other way

around.

And that's the great

problem with

Phariseeism

or legalism,

fundamentalism,

various terms

that would be applied

to this type of heart.

Legalism says,

for you to be accepted

by God,

you must look like me.

But the gospel of Christ

says,

you have been accepted

by God by grace alone,

through faith alone,

in Christ alone,

and by grace,

He is conforming you

into His image.

This must be true

for those of us

who are found in Christ.

We will live properly.

We will display mercy.

But it's not the other

way around.

We cannot work

our way

to heavenly favor.

This is impossible.

Our work is simply

the evidence

of the heavenly favor

we have already

received.

And this

was the message

that Jesus was trying

to get across

to the Pharisees.

Remember,

He came

to preach

the Gospel.

Chapter 1,

verse 15,

And the kingdom of God

is at hand.

Repent and believe

in the Gospel,

the good news

of Jesus Christ.

This is what has been

granted to us,

I hope,

for everyone

in this room.

But we really need

to search out

our hearts

and find the ways

in which

we are legalists.

And this happens

a lot.

Churches at Broad,

there are many,

many,

many churches

that this Sunday morning

if I were not wearing

a tie and a jacket,

I'd be found

unacceptable.

Not just from

a personal preference,

which is fine.

It's okay if people

like a guy

who wears a tie,

they take him

more seriously.

It's okay.

But they would

actually find me

unacceptable

before God

that I would dare

enter a church

building

not wearing

a tie.

Phariseeism.

Extra laws.

Things stacked

on top.

Simply trying

to get at the

heart of things.

People just want

to see somebody

be reverent

before God.

That's a good

motivation

and we should.

But when it becomes

about mere trappings

on the outside,

we've missed the point.

We've missed the point

all together.

And so this morning,

as we begin

to take the Lord's

Supper together,

I want to do things

a little bit differently.

And I want to ask you

to take some time

to remove the log

from your own eye

so that you can

remove the speck

from others.

It is so easy

when we read about

these men

to project

the fault

and the wrong

that's happening

here on the world

around us.

I want to do this.

I am so tempted

to say,

Christ Family Church

has got it all

figured out.

We are doing well.

And then point my finger

at every other church

out there.

As you've heard me

say before,

we have our own

95 theses

we can nail on our door.

Stick it with a magnet.

Right?

There are faults

within our church.

There are ways

in which we are

saying to people

for you to be accepted

by God,

you must look like me.

And this is not

the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

So, men,

if you were asked

to help serve

the Lord's Supper,

let me just ask

that you go ahead

and go back

and get the elements

for the Lord's Supper.

I want to read to you

some more of

Colossians 1.

We read a bit

beginning in verse 15.

But turn with me,

please,

to Colossians 1.

Verse 15.

Jesus is the image

of the invisible God,

the firstborn

of all creation.

For by Him

all things were created

in heaven and on earth

visible and invisible

whether thrones

or dominions

or rulers

or authorities.

All things were created

through Him

and for Him.

And here's where

we keep going.

And He is before

all things,

preeminent.

And in Him

all things

hold together.

and He is the head

of the body,

the church.

He is the beginning,

the firstborn from the dead,

that in everything

He might be preeminent.

For in Him

all the fullness of God

was pleased to dwell

and through Him

to reconcile

to Himself

all things

whether on earth

or in heaven,

making peace

by the blood

of His cross.

and you

who once

were alienated

and hostile

in mind

doing evil deeds,

He is now

reconciled in His body

of flesh

by His death

in order to present

you holy

and blameless

and above

reproach

before Him.

You see

in this text

this completed

work of Christ

on the cross.

And that's what

we celebrate together

in the Lord's Supper.

Not that we might

labor together

under our own power,

that we might rejoice,

find great joy

in the work

that He has completed

and is completing

in us.

And I hope that

contemplating this

and thinking through this

makes you motivated

to share

this gospel

with the world.

Let's pray together

and then have the men

come

and you take the Lord's Supper

as you feel prepared.