Luke 6:1-5; The Lord of the Sabbath

Luke chapter six one through six. So chapter six and

this morning we find Jesus on two consecutive Sabbath days.

Now we're going to read about the first one this

morning and one through five, and the next week or

week after whenever I'm here next will be the sixth

through I think of six through twelve. So we find

Jesus on two consecutive Sabbath days confronted by a familiar problem.

The traditions that were allowed to be built up around

the law have been illustrated by Luke at Levi's feast

and the questions that he got there. Now, Luke takes

us deeper into the legalism and the pride that oppressed

that opposed Jesus with two questions about Sabbath observance. So

the first question was why are you eating with sinners

and publicans right? And the second question was why aren't

you fasting? Why are you eating and you're not fasting? Well,

those are those were fringe issues that the traditions had

created to keep people from breaking the law, and they

those traditions had become law themselves. But now if Jesus

breaks the Sabbath according to their traditions, because everybody was

following these traditions about the Sabbath. If he did that,

they've got him. They've got him. So these are very

important questions. And they think they've got the aha moment

here with Jesus breaking the Sabbath, that Jesus has something

to say to these fellas about that. And so we're

gonna look at that today, Versus one through five. So

the first question here is in verse two, and it's

driven by the Pharisees. The second question is in verse nine,

and we're going to see that next time. And Jesus

is the one that asks them. They don't speak to

him the second time. Second time is in the synagogue,

and he asked them a question about Sabbath. So today

I want to focus on one through five. The Pharisees

had completely distorted the observance of the Sabbath with their requirements.

But you know what, I don't think we should be

too hard on the Pharisees because men are constantly coming

up with legalistic requirements which they think are necessary to

earn God's favor. And so the Pharisees were just doing

what we've always been doing. The cults of our day

major on the theme of works. They always major on

work certain works, of course, and you from one to

the next they differ a little bit. And of course

the you know, the person who keeps works according to

Mormonism is not going to be accepted by people that

keep works according to Jehovah's witness you know, or Christian

Science or whatever you know. They there's there's going to

be differences from each one going around. You're going to

find different ideas about what you need to do to

earn God's favor. If you can earn God's favor. Some

of them don't even have that. But so for the Mormons,

for example, they require a whole slate of works for

their idea of salvation to be possible. Christian Science, the

Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians, Universalists, other neo gnostic groups demand certain

knowledge and certain things to be done to gain that knowledge.

Even those we might classify as Christian, such as United Pentecostals,

Church of Christ, Christian Church, they all have varying levels

of works that they require for salvation. I got saved

when I was seventeen years old, you know my testimony,

And there was a good friend of our family and

He was a United Pentecostal pastor, and I went to

see him and he said, well, he said, you're not

done yet. You have to have the baptism of the

Holy Ghost. You have to have the evidence of tongues,

you have to be baptized by us, and you have

to join one of our churches. Then you can say

you're saved. And I sat there and I thought to myself, no, no,

I just knew enough, even though I was a baby

in Christ. I knew enough to know that I had

been born again. Didn't need all those things. So I

walked out of his office disappointed, because I respected him,

but I realized that something was not quite right. Church

of Christ, of course we know what they do. They

demand that you be baptized. Can't be saved unless you're baptized,

or adding baptism to works. Christian Church adds baptism and

Lord's Supper. You have to do those things in order

to be saved. And of course Christian Church is just

a offshoot of Church of Christ, Church of christ Ism.

And then of course the Catholics have various levels of

works that they require for salvation, confirmation, taking the mass, confession,

marriage final rights, all those things you have to do

those in order to be saved. So all these works

we've talked about it before, but you know, these things

are red flags. And when I mentioned these, I mention

these today so that we don't forget that this is

a problem not just for Jesus in the New Testament,

not just for the Early Church, because the Early Church

struggled with this too. We've saw some of that last time,

Acts chapter fifteen. The very first Church council was over

this very thing. So we see it in the New Testament,

we see it in the Early Church, we see it

in the ministry of Jesus. But it's still a problem today.

This is so relevant for us. Well meaning men can

be drawn off into a works centered theology, and it

happens all the time. This event we're going to read

today in Luke six. We also find it in Mark

chapter two, and we find it in Matthew chapter twelve.

So you can see it there in the other gospels.

And there's something like it really in John chapter five.

I'll mention John five later. But John five he goes

into the temple, or he goes to the poodle Bethesda,

and he heals the man by the pool. But it

was the Sabbath day when he did it, And so

the Pharis is very upset about that healing on the

Sabbath day. So let's read Luke six one through five.

And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after

the first, that he went through the cornfields, and his

disciples plucked the ears of corn and did eat, rubbing

them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said

unto them, why do you that which is not lawful

to do on the Sabbath days? And Jesus answering them, said,

have you not read so much as this what David

did when himself was a hungered And they which were

with him, how he went into the house of God

and did take and eat the showbread, and gave also

to them that were with him, which it is not

lawful to eat, but for the priests alone. And he

said unto them that the son of Man is lord

also of the Sabbath. Father, would you give us insight

today as we consider your word? And give us each one, father, unction,

that we might see the light of your word. Father,

For in your light we see light lightness. Today. Father,

we just asked that you would open the rock today

and let the waters flow, that rivers might run in

the desert. Lord, we pray that you would give me

unction as I preach, bless us today, as we consider

the words of our savior here when we pray in

Jesus name. Amen. So you'll notice there verse one, here

we have the situation set up for us. It came

to pass on the second sabbath after the first, the

second Sabbath after the first. You yes, I have questions

about that too. What is the second Sabbath after the

first sabbath? Nobody seems to really know. Some say that

this is a gloss in the text. Doctor Gil says

that it has to do with a certain number of

sabbaths within a feast time for Israel. And so there

was the first Sabbath, which was an important sabbath, a

significant event, and then the second sabbath after that was

also a significant event. And so that's the way they

designated it, the second Sabbath after the first, So they

knew which one they were talking about. I don't know.

You can read fifteen different people and you'll get seventeen

different ideas on this. Some don't even treat it at all.

What we do know is that we're talking about Jesus

on a sabbath day, and it's probably an important sabbath

and he's traveling through the fields. It says he went

through the cornfields. Denise and I went up to her

parents home last week, and as we were going up there,

you know, we're getting the house ready for Salete. The

route up is through is on one twenty seven and

it's bordered by grain fields the majority of the way.

Once you get past Hamilton, it's all corn on one

side and soy being on the other. And then you

go to another section and it's full of winter wheat

and soy being planted over here, and the winter wheat

is now just ripening. So when it says that he

went through the cornfields, we understand that because we travel

through fields like that as well, right all the time,

especially here in Ohio lots of rural areas. Kentucky's a

the same. You go down there, you have you know,

you have cornfields on both sides in Kentucky, people growing

corn to sell, people growing it for silage, and it's

you know, it's everywhere. And so Jesus and his men

are walking through these corn fields and it's a highway,

it's a byway going from one place to another, and

it's just cut. You know. You know, Joe's got his

farm on this side, and you know Jim's got his

farm on this side, and walking along the highway or

the byeway to get to where they're going. So we're

familiar with this whole idea. And if you're walking along

and there's wheat there, and that's probably it's wheat or

barley in these fields, the disciples just slip down off

of the path and they grab a stock and strip

it as they come up, and then they've got a

handful of wheat and they rub it and get all

the husks off and all the rest of the you know,

stuff off of it. And they've got a handful of

uncooked raw wheat in their hands so they can have

something to eat. Doctor Robertson believed that Jesus was returning

from the feast in Jerusalem that is recorded in John

five where he had a controversy about healing on the

Sabbath with the Jewish authorities. Doctor Matthew Henry in his

commentary says that isn't it wonderful that the disciples had

got up early, and they're eager to get to Sabbath

at the synagogue so they can hear more of Jesus teaching.

And they're so excited about going that they forgot their breakfast.

And so on the way to synagogue with Jesus, they

decide they'll have some little something something off the side

of the road. The disciples plucked the ears of corn

and did eat, rubbing it in their hands. And according

to the Jewish tradition, this motion of stripping the plant

bear of its berries, rubbing them in the hands, and

then blowing off the chaff and all the waste was

work on a sabbath. This simulated threshing, winnowing, and preparing

the wheat to be eaten. And so when they did that,

and of course you had Pharisees trailing along behind them,

because they want to watch everything that Jesus and the

boys do. They say they this happen, and they say

to him, what are you doing? Why are you breaking

the sabbath? But of course this was allowed. Moses said

in Deuteronomy twenty three, when you come into the standing

corner of your neighbor, then thou mayst pluck the ears

with thine hand, But thou shalt not move a sickle

into thy neighbor's standing corn. How merciful that is. If

you're walking along and you've not eaten in a while,

and you need the energy to continue. If there's a

you know, so, there's a little bit there, you can

take some now, if done on the Sabbath day. According

to the authorities in Jesus' time, this was a crime,

breaking the law and defaming the Sabbath. Certain of the

Pharisees said under them, why do you that which is

not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? And they

were They had refined godliness down to the smallest actions.

This wasn't unlawful according to the scriptures. Plucking, rubbing, eating

wasn't unlawful on the Sabbath according to their Plucking, rubbing,

and eating was unlawful on the Sabbath according to their

narrow tradition, because it simulated threshing, win wing, and preparing.

And again their language, unlawful means their actions were against

the traditions of the Father, not the law itself. We

have to be careful, especially in our day, about what

somebody means by their words, don't we? When a Mormon

man or woman tells you that, oh, yes, they believe

in Jesus too. Just because they use the word Jesus

doesn't mean they believe in the same Jesus that you do.

They have a whole other God that they call Jesus.

They are not believing in the Jesus of scripture. They're

believing in something else. And so, well, look at that

fellow and he's a good guy, and he's got a

nice home and a pretty wife and lovely children and

their good neighbors, and he says he believes in Jesus.

And you're like, okay, I do too. But it's not

the case. These fellows were saying it's unlawful to do that.

And if you didn't know the scripture, you'd say, okay,

I don't want to break the law. But their law

was their tradition, it wasn't the scripture. Be careful when

people say things, and there's a whole lot of God

talk out there, we need to be asking ourselves the

question today when you hear people talk about God, God, God, God,

They're always talking about God. Which one? And how come

you're not talking about the Lord Jesus. The head of

the church because there's a whole lot of this God

talk going on in churches today. People aren't referring to

the Lord Jesus. That's a problem too. We need to

ask questions. These folks depended on the fact that the

Jewish folks did not ask questions. And so when they

said it's unlawful for you to pluck grain on the

Sabbath day, everybody said, well, I don't want to break

the law. But of course these men are talking about

their traditions that had been built up over generations. All right,

So that's the question, that's the setup for us the situation.

Let's see what Jesus answer is. Jesus answering said. Jesus

answering them said, let me see if I can read English.

And Jesus answering them said, have you not read so

much as this? Okay, once more, Jesus appealed to the

scriptures for his defense. He goes right to the Bible.

This is how ignorant these Jews were of the Bible.

They knew more about what Rabbi so and so said

was the tradition than they did the scriptures. I wonder

if Jesus wouldn't ask us the same question, Have you

not read so much as this? Do you mean to

tell me that you've never read the story of Joseph.

Do you mean to tell me that you've never read

the story of Mapibishev, or Jonah or Daniel, or the

travels of Paul or the letters of John. We act

like we know so much about the Bible, with our

big boy and big girl questions. If we would just

read our Bibles, the Holy Ghost would answer those questions

for us. Have you not read so much as this?

And then he goes on to tell us what David

did he noticed there? Have you not read so much

as this? What David did when himself was an hunger

and they which were with him. Okay, if you have

your Bible, wy, don't you turn over with me to

First Samuel, First Samuel, chapter twenty one, and let's just

look at that story so that when Jesus asks us,

have you not read so much as this? We can say, yeah,

we read that. Pastor Dave had us read that the

other day. First Samuel twenty one, beginning in verse one.

Then came David to nob to Ahimelech the priest, and

himelechk was afraid at the meeting of David, and said,

unto him, why art thou alone and no man with thee?

And David said, into Himelech the priest, the King has

commanded me a business, And hath said unto me, lett,

no man know anything of the business. Whereabout I send

thee and what I have commanded thee? And I have

appointed my servants to such and such a place. Now, therefore,

what is under thine hand? Give me five loaves of

bread in thine in mine hand, or what there is present?

And the priest answered David and said, there is no

common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread.

If the young men have kept themselves at least from women.

And David answered the priest and said in him of

a truth, women have been kept from us about these

three days since I came out. And the vessels of

the young men are holy, and the bread is in

a manner common yea, though it were sanctified this day

in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed bread,

for there was no bread there but the showbread, and

that was taken from before the Lord to put hot

bread in the day when it was taken away. Okay,

so that's the story that Jesus refers to what David

did when himself was in hungered and they were with him.

Notice the comparisons here, Jesus should be compared with David

in a sense the disciples with David's men, they're hungry.

The disciples are hungry. Jesus comes into the tabernacle here,

or David goes into the tabernacle. Jesus is in the cornfields.

In both events, both Jesus's event and David's event happen

on the Sabbath day. Because you'll notice there in verse

six the bread, the showbread, was taken from before the

Lord to put hot bread in the day when it

was taken away, So the Sabbath is the day when

the showbread is changed out. So now we have old

bread coming off the table of the Lord and new

bread being put on. So we know that David was

there on the Sabbath. But that's where the comparisons really end,

because Jesus is standing on a road in the middle

of a wheat field. David, according to Jesus and the

record of scripture, went into the House of God. So

Jesus is on the road. David has gone into the tabernacle.

Jesus' disciples were eating the wheat that they had plucked.

But David and his men, Jesus said, took and ate

the showbread and gave it to them that were with him.

So they're eating the bread that came off of the

table in the lord's house. So you see the disparity

here between what's going on at the moment with Jesus

and what happened with David. They're eating showbread. His disciples

have just plucked some some ears of corn, that's all.

They're not even in or close to the tabernacle, the temple,

the compound. They're not even there, and yet Jesus and

his men are being condemned for what they've done. So

here's the question about the law is answered. Jesus said,

it's not lawful to eat but for the priests alone.

So the showbread that they're eating was for the priest.

The prescription about the showbread is found in Leviticus chapter seven.

Now let's just take you a second to turn over

to Leviticus. I'm sorry, twenty five. Leviticus twenty five, and

it's just the just a couple of verses there in

Leviticus twenty five, verses five through nine. Did I say

that right? No, I'm sorry, it's Leviticus twenty four five

through nine. There you go. Here's the prescription for the showbread.

And now shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes.

Thereof two tenths deals shall be in one cake, and

thou shalt set them in two rows, six in a row,

upon the pure table before the Lord, and thou shalt

put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be

on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made

by fire under the Lord. Every Sabbath. He shall set

it in order before the Lord, continually being taken from

the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it

shall be Eron's and his sons, and they shall eat

it in the Holy place, for it is most holy

unto him, of the offerings of the Lord, made by fire,

a perpetual statue. All right. So that's Leviticus twenty four

five through nine tells us about the showbread and the

show bread in the tabernacle pictured God's care for all

twelve tribes, providing for them in the wilderness. And always

it was a memorial, just as what we have set

by the deacons before us this morning is a memorial.

They were remembering how God had blessed them and kept

them and still was, and so our memorial as that

as well. It was changed every Sabbath so that fresh

hot bread would be there on the day the Lord

met with his people. So in the church the pastors

are charged with setting out fresh hot bread from God's

word for the congregation every Sabbath. The old bread that

was removed was holy to the priest, meaning that he

could give it to those in need, but he was

to oversee the distribution of it. It was holy to him,

so once it came off of the table, the priest

could eat it or he could distribute it, but he

was the one who oversaw the distribution of it, just

as a Himelech did with David, and it was to

be eaten in the Holy Place, which apparently David's men did. So.

When the Pharisees come to Jesus and they say, hey,

you're you're doing what's not lawful on the Sabbath, what

does Jesus do? He goes write to the scripture and

he says, but what did David do? He and his

men were starved. They went into the tabernacle. They were

given the holy bed bread by the priests because it

was come off the table. So now it could be

distributed if the priest wanted to. The priest did that,

he set a parameter for it. David assured him that

the men were okay, that you know, everyone was fine,

and they ate because they were starving. And so here's

our lesson. He said into them that the Son of

Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. To help us

with this lesson, let's ask the other two evangelists to

give us their record of the event. So right there,

in right there in Matthew chapter twelve, verses six through eight,

Jesus says, but I say to you that in this

place is one greater than the temple. But if you

had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and

not sacrifice, you would have not condemned the guiltless for

the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. Okay.

So in Matthew's recounting of this, this comes at the

end of Jesus, quoting from for Samuel twenty four or

for Samuel twenty one, Jesus is greater than the Temple.

Don't you know that crawled up their pet leg Jesus

is greater than the temple. Jesus is greater than the temple. Therefore,

what does that mean? He has the authority to oversee

things of faith? Christ in a cornfield was greater than

the Temple, for in him dwelt the presence of God symbolically,

but all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And they

didn't know who they were talking to. This place is

one greater than the temple. But if you'd known what

this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, you

would not condemned the guiltless for one man to show

mercy to another man is more important than religious performance.

This quote is from Hoseah six to six. For I

desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God

more than burnt offerings. Legalism always stifles the souls of men,

because it is anesthetical to mercy and to grace. James

said it best in the New Testament when he wrote this,

so speaky, and so do as they that shall be

judged by the law of liberty, For he shall have

judgment without mercy, that hath shown no mercy, and mercy

reje choices against judgment. Mark chapter two is our other

evangelist in twenty seven and twenty eight, at the end

of this passage, or at the end of this event,

Mark records and he said into them the Sabbath was

made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore,

the son of Man is lord also of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for

the Sabbath. So what was man made for? He wasn't

made to the Sabbath. Again, the Sabbath wasn't created, and

man had to be pigeonholed into that. No man was made,

and then the Sabbath created for the man. The Sabbath

was given to men as a day of rest and

worship to consider the greatness of God, to devote ourselves

to him. It was never meant to be an imposition

on men, or to be used as a club to

pummel men into submission. Man was made for God, just

as the Westminster Larger Catechism says, man's chief and highest

end is to glorify God and fully to enjoy Him forever.

So when Jesus says the Son of Man is lord

of the Sabbath in verse five. Right here in Luke

chapter six, he answers their question. Their question was, why

do you do that which is not lawful on the

Sabbath days? Number one to expose their legalism, number two

to demonstrate the true meaning of the Sabbath, and number

three to demonstrate his right over the Sabbath as God's son.

And notice that Jesus said, also, do you see that

in the text the Son of Man is lord allo

of the Sabbath? What's the Also therefore, well, if you

go back and you look in chapter five, you'll find this.

Whither is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee

or to say rise up and walk, But that you

may know that the Son of Man hath power upon

earth to forgive sins. He saith unto the sick of

the palsy, I say unto the arise, take up thy

couch and go into thine house. So in Luke chapter

five he is the son of Man who forgives sins

and heals. Now he says, the Son of Man is

also over the Sabbath. And what did they learn in

chapter five when he healed the man on the couch,

they learned that he was God, and now he says,

the son of Man, because he's God, is over the

Sabbath as well. So how do we apply this? Well,

I want to ask you a question. How's your Bible reading?

How's your Bible reading? Is your knowledge of God greater

than your religious performance? That's a good question. If Jesus

were to show up and say, have you not read

so much as this? I think all of us might

be just a little bit ashamed if we're born again. Second,

how is your sabbath keeping? Are you willing? Are you

a willing participant in the worship of God? Or do

you just attend only because you feel like you have to?

Because if you feel like you have to, then ladies

and gentlemen, it's nothing more than the same legalism that

these guys were peddling. That's it. But if you come

because you're excited, that's the good thing. So how is

your Sabbath keeping? So we know what sabbath keeping became,

and even today it is still used by leaguealists to

control their followers. But how do we understand the Sabbath? Well,

the Savoy Declaration helps us in that way. It has

a wonderful chapter on the sabbath, and here's what it says.

And I broke this down into five different parts because

I think it really helps us to think through what

are we talking about when we use the word sabbath.

What do we mean? First of all, the Savoy Declaration says,

as it is of the law of nature that in general,

a proportion of time, by God's appointment, to be set

apart for the worship of God. Yes, so notice it

said in general, in general a portion of time is

to be set apart for God's worship. Why because that's

good for us. It's made for us because we need

in general by nature a time when we can stop

and worship God, because if we don't, we never will.

We will always find something to fill our moments. Always

we need time to stop and worship. Secondly, so by

his word in a positive, moral and perpetual commandment binding

all men in all ages, he has particularly appointed one

day in seven for a sabbath to be kept wholly

unto him. So we go from the law of nature

in general that we need one day in seven to

worship God to particular day. What is the particular day

that we're to worship God, and God has given a positive,

moral and perpetual commandment, so the Savoid Declaration gives us

that meaning. This is the third thing, which from the

beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was

the last day of the week, and from the resurrection

of Christ has changed into the first day of the week,

which in scripture is called the Lord's Day and is

to be continued to the end of the world as

the Christian Sabbath. The observance of the last day of

the week being abolished. So now on Sunday, the day

that God has prepared for us to come, set aside

everything else because we need it to worship God and

to rest, just like He did. Fourth, this Sabbath is

kept holy under the Lord when men, after ad preparing

of their hearts and ordering their common affairs beforehand, do

not only observe and holy rest all the day from

their works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations.

So we are to think ahead, plan ahead, because we

know we're going to be off on Sunday, because that's

the Lord's Day. That's the day I'm going to go

to church, That's the day I'm going to worship. That's

the day I'm going to rest. I turn everything off

for that day, all my work, all my thoughts about

my work, all that. If I can, I turn it off.

But then here's the part that I think fits so

well with what we just read in Luke six one

through five. But also are taken up the whole time

in the public and private exercises of His worship and

in the duties of necessity and mercy. Sometimes on Sundays

somebody needs help. Sometimes on Sundays, family is in a crisis.

Sometimes on Sundays, your car's broken down and you got

to go to work tomorrow. Sometimes on Sundays the pipe's

broken at home and you've got to fix it. You

can't wait. Those are deeds of necessity and mercy. Sometimes

on Sunday you have to go to the store and shop.

It just happens. But that's okay, because we're not This

is not legalism. This is a rule for living life.

And so deeds of necessity and mercy on Sabbath is fine.

Christian Sabbath is made for that. But our principal obedience

is to rest before Him, to worship him, to set

aside all that so that we can have in general

that day when we rest before the Lord. So this

is how we should consider the idea of Sabbath. Let's

vow for prayer. Our Father, we asked that you would

help us today. Thank you for the words of our Savior,

who so wonderfully taught us hear about this idea of Sabbath.

And we continue in this chapter. Father, we're going to

see it again, and we ask the that you would

give us strength as we look to the synagogue the

next time, on the next Sabbath, when Jesus also faces

and confronts this legalism. Lord, we pray that you would

watch over us now bless this invitation him and the

Lord's supper that's to follow. We still look forward to that,

and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.