He Is Good | Mark 2:23-28 | Interpretation of The Sabbath

We are in a series right now titled He is Good, looking at Mark's Gospel.

We're gonna pause on this next week for a couple of weeks and then get back to it in October as we look through just kind of what we want as a church in our vision series.

But uh we're gonna finish chapter two today.

And the reason we titled this series He is Good is because Mark titles his gospel, This is the Good News, the beginning of the good news of Jesus.

And so we wanted to catch that theme and kind of walk it through all the way through all of Mark's gospel and just looking at why does Mark call this man good?

And I think it's important for us, especially in our culture and different times, to consider why is Jesus good, because there's so many voices and opinions out there that like Jesus isn't that good.

Jesus or Jesus is as good as someone else, or Jesus is as good as another deity, or Jesus is mean or hateful or uh a bigot or something like that.

And so it's a space for us as a church not only to be reminded of like this is why he is good according to what is actually said about him, but then also to allow that to be a space that we're shaped by his goodness so that we're able to give that out to the world.

And so that's what we're doing.

This particular text is Mark 2, verses 23 through 28.

Mark 2:23–28

And this is what Mark writes about Jesus.

He says, One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.

And the Pharisee said to him, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?

And he answered, Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and then in need?

In the days of Abiathar, the high priest, they entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for the priest to eat, and he also gave some to his companions.

Then 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.

And let's say this last part together.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

When I was in seminary, I met a guy who seminary was tough, right?

Like seminary is like a bunch of people who think they know a bunch about the Bible, and they're mostly really arrogant about it.

And it's like, we're all gonna be pastors, this is great.

And I met a guy who thought he knew like tons about the Bible and the way that he read the scriptures and that kind of thing.

And he was very proud of it, and it was really difficult to be in relationship with this person.

But uh one particular space that he stepped into that I probably rejoiced over a little too much was he uh was constantly on people about sharing their faith and sharing their faith.

You gotta share your faith, you gotta share your faith, and he would do these incredible things to go in and share in his faith.

It was, it was great, it was really cool.

Um, but one time he was talking to a homeless man or somebody on the streets in Chicago where we went to school, and uh trying to share about how much he trusts Jesus and he'd trust Jesus with his whole life and that kind of thing.

And the guy he was talking to was like, Hey, if you I'll believe in Jesus, I will do it.

Um, but you have to prove to me how much you trust him.

So give me your debit card and the four-digit code, and then if you really trust Jesus that I won't take all of your money, then you know, I'll then I'll believe in him if you do that.

And the guy was like, Okay, and lost all of his money.

I mean, just all of it was just taken out of his bank account and the whole thing.

And he comes back and tells the story as a um, like, I'm I'm I'm so faithful and that kind of thing.

And uh I was sitting there going, like, that was the dumbest thing that you've maybe ever done in your entire life.

But I say all that to say, not to criticize him, although it in my heart I think I still have a little bit of that towards him.

Um, but I say all that to say is like how we read this book, like how we actually read the scriptures, um, is very, very important.

I think actually how we read it is more important than if we read it.

Because if you're like me, there have been people that have used the Bible to hurt and to harm, and it would have just been better for them to be mean and then not place God's name on top of it.

I mean, but like just be cruel and mean and don't say I'm doing this in the name of the Lord.

Like, I just wish that you hadn't read it.

I'd rather you just not call yourself a Christian, you're you're kind of angry and hateful, and please don't attach God's name to that.

Um, and so for him, it was like he's like, I'm just gonna, the way that he read it led him to act a certain way, and I think that how we read the scriptures and how the Pharisees are reading the scriptures in this particular way and in this particular text, is shaping a lot of what they're doing, and they're missing out on what Jesus is actually trying to lead them into, how they read it, made them miss out on this gift that Jesus is going.

There's something here for you, and the way that you understand this and the way that you read this is actually shaping you in such a way that you're missing the goodness of it.

And so for us, I do think it's important that we read the scriptures, but I think we need to read it in the in the way that we're supposed to read it so that we don't wind up in a space where we're either selling ourselves short or we're hurting somebody else in the process.

And so, what I want to look at today are two mistakes of reading the scriptures the way the Pharisees do, because I think they're common for us.

I think the way that they read these the scriptures and the way that they are interpreting the law is something that's very common for us and a pitfall for us as well.

Um, and it leads us to missing out on what Jesus actually does.

And then I want to look at what Jesus actually says.

Like, here's how I want you to interpret the law, here's how I want you to view the law, not the way that you're doing it, I want you to do it this way.

So the two mistakes that they make that I think that we fall into as well, and then how Jesus wants us to view God's word.

So the first, first mistake they make is their view altogether, like the lens through which they see God's word is just wrong.

Their view is completely wrong.

And this is what leads to the argument in verse 24.

The Pharisees say to him, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?

That's their argument.

And what Jesus says in verse 27, he's like, You're you're reading it wrong.

You're reading the whole law wrong.

The Sabbath was not made for uh this you were not made for the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for you.

You're reading it wrong.

The Sabbath is supposed to be a gift to you, it's not simply a command to be obeyed.

And so their view of like why the law was given was completely flawed and it was completely wrong.

Their view was that when God gives his law, the lens through which they saw it, God gives his law because he wants us to be good.

Like that's their view completely.

And so he gives us commands and it's about behavior and obedience and do this and don't do that.

That's how they viewed it.

And so they don't see that the Sabbath was actually supposed to be a gift, they just see it as something.

It's like he commanded a Sabbath, therefore we must Sabbath.

And Jesus is going, you're missing this.

You're missing the way that you're reading it incorrectly, you view it wrong.

And what it led to for the Pharisees was that it led them ultimately to add more laws on top of God's law because they viewed it as He wants me to be good, and so I need to not work on the Sabbath.

And so if He wants me to be good, I could be even better.

I don't just have to not work on the Sabbath, I can like not open doors on the Sabbath.

I don't have to just not work on the Sabbath, I can make it to where I don't even put out candles on the Sabbath.

I don't just have to not work on the Sabbath.

And like they started adding all of these different things on top of do no work on the Sabbath, and they're like, I could, I can one up God's law.

And that's what they did.

They started adding all these different rituals and all these different things to not only say, like, don't work, but like here's how I define work and all these different things.

And a lot of that still exists today.

The way that they follow the Sabbath, the way that like I'm not gonna work, and it includes 39 different paradigms of like thinking about work.

And that's what Jesus is getting at.

He's like, you're reading this wrong.

You you've turned this into I just don't want you to work.

And he's like, the idea is I want you to rest, and you've turned this into law on top of law, on top of law, and all these different things, all these different things.

And that's what he's getting at.

Um David Gozik says this about how the rabbis interpreted the Sabbath in this thing, just seeing it as be good, and therefore I will add these laws to it.

This is what he says.

He says, Rabbis at this time filled Judaism with elaborate rituals related to the Sabbath and the observance of other laws.

Ancient rabbis taught that on the Sabbath a man could not carry something in his right hand or in his left hand across his chest or on a shoulder.

But you could carry something on the back of your hand with your foot or with your elbow or in your ear, your hair, the hem of your shirt, or a shoe, or on your sandal.

It's like, this is ridiculous.

Like, what is like you've added something and now you've got to find some way to get past it.

So it's like you can't carry it like this, but if you do this, that's completely fine.

That's like, and it says, on the Sabbath you were forbidden to tie a knot.

Why?

That doesn't, there doesn't make any sense.

But they were like, let's work could include tying a knot.

It takes work to do this, so we can't tie knots.

But except a woman could tie a knot in her girdle.

That's good.

So if a bucket of water, if a bucket of water had to be raised from a well, you could not tie a rope around the bucket, but a woman could tie her girdle to the bucket.

It's like, this is the dumbest thing anybody, but again, in their mind, they're going like, we just need to be good.

God just wants us to be good.

So like here's here's let's not work, and let's also not do this, and let's also not do this.

And then they started looking around and going, we also don't like that that person's doing that.

So we're gonna make that a part of this thing as well.

We're gonna make it to where it's strict, we can't work on the Sabbath, we're gonna make it even stricter.

It'd be like if I told Teddy, hey, I want go into the kitchen, grab a plate, your donuts on the counter.

That's the command.

And if he heard that as he wants me to walk really far, I'm not just gonna walk to the kitchen, I'm gonna walk to the mailbox.

And it's like, no, no.

Like, I want you to go to the kitchen, grab a plate.

I'm gonna grab ten plates, ten plates.

One plate's not enough work.

I'm gonna grab ten plates.

And then, like, no, again, it's not about the plate.

It's like, I'm just I'm telling you where the donut is, man.

I just want you to go get the donut.

And he's like, Well, you in the in the command you gave me, it never said eat the donut, so I'll just stare at it.

I'll just look at it for a while.

It's like, it sounds silly, but like that's what they did.

They just viewed this incorrectly and they didn't see that.

And Jesus is going, You're reading this wrong.

It's not that way.

Gazak continues, and he says, There was nothing wrong with what they did, what the disciples did.

But this violated the rabbi's elaborate list of do's and don'ts relevant to the Sabbath.

And when the disciples began to pluck the heads of grain on the Sabbath in the eyes of the religious leaders, they violated four of their traditions, and they were guilty of reaping, threshing, winnowing, and preparing food, which is not what they're doing at all.

But because they interpreted all of God's law, and their their lens was, He just wants me to be good, he just wants me to behave.

And it was like, well, I can add a bunch of those things, and I can't, I I won't just be good, I'm gonna be great, I'm gonna be perfect, and I'm gonna add these things.

And then they equated those things with God's law.

They just viewed it incorrectly.

And in the pro in the process of doing that, they actually completely missed what the command was for, which is I just want you to rest.

And now what you're doing is actually more work than the original thing I asked you not to do.

You're you're jumping through hurdles to even try and rest.

Like I you're you're working harder now than before.

You should have just not kept the command and it would have been fine.

And it's just the way that they viewed it, they ended up reading it and missing out on what Jesus is trying to get them to.

And to me, I think we struggle with this same thing.

I think all of us approach the scriptures in one way or another with a view or with a lens that's either given us by the world, our parents, some pastor, our experience in the church, or something like that.

But we come to the scriptures with a certain view, and if it's not the correct view that Jesus wants to give us, and we'll get to that in just a second, if it's not the correct view, we wind up in this space where it's like, man, we're gonna see this completely wrong and miss out on what he's trying to give us.

And so for me, I a couple of the views that I have just noticed in the life of every church I've ever been a part of.

Um, but one is the list of do's and don'ts view.

Some people view the scriptures like this: here's what you should do.

It's very similar to the Pharisees.

Here's what you do, here's what you don't do, here's all the Bible is.

All the Bible is is here's what's allowed, here's what's prohibited.

If you know this, you'll do good and you will get good.

If you do this, it'll be bad and you'll get bad.

And they see all of the scriptures that way.

Uh, this is how I view the scriptures as a kid.

I was uh confused when I opened up like the cover of the Bible and it was like started telling a story of how creation happened and not like a list of the Ten Commandments right off the bat.

Because I genuinely thought this is just a rule book, like of just do's and don'ts.

And when I found out, I was like, I kept turning pages, looking for the Ten Commandments.

I'm like, somewhere in here is how I'm supposed to live.

I'm gonna find it out.

And I just kept looking, and all of a sudden it's like Exodus 19.

I'm like, boy, we really spent a lot of time before we got to the rules section of the Bible.

Now I know what to do is right and what to do is wrong.

And like I think people still view the scriptures that way.

Here's what makes God happy, here's what makes him angry at you.

Um to the fearful who view the scriptures this way, the fearful obey out of fear of punishment and God punishing their lives and making their lives hard because they're being disobedient.

And to the rebellious, um, people like like me, if you have a strong personality, to the rebellious, like, I'm not listening to your dues adults, we just rebel against it, I'm not doing any of that, that's stupid, and strong-willed people do that.

But to the fearful, like, no, I'm really worried, we'll be obedient out of fear.

And ultimately that leads us to miss what the scriptures are actually for.

The second view that I see is common in the church is uh the good advice view.

This is uh this is seeing the scriptures like it's one good way to live your life.

You can follow it when you agree with it, but it's just advice, do it if you want, uh, which normally leads people to like doing the great, like the easy things the scripture says.

Like it's I do this really well, and it's like you need to sacrifice on your money and get like, no, I'm not gonna do that.

I'm gonna take that as advice, I'm gonna take this as something good so they never end up leaning into the harder things of faith that Jesus actually calls us into.

Um my personal favorite, the win the argument view.

Uh, these are the types of people that normally use the Bible just to win arguments.

So their whole reason of studying the Bible is just to berate you with it, and to if you ever say anything to them about something, they have a Bible verse to shut down every conversation.

They're fun to be around.

Um in this particular way, uh, God's word stops giving life to others and begins to be the reason why people don't want anything to do with God, because every time they talk to you about it, it's just to end something and to not start in a conversation to talk about, but to like throw it in your face to shut you down and tell you why you're wrong.

Lots of fun, just like Jesus.

Um the most common view I think I see in the church today is the uh seeing the seeing the Bible like salt, the salt view.

Um and so it's like a like a like you know, just seasoning on it.

Like you only add it if you need it.

Um and so uh this would be the the equivalent of saying, like, I really want Jesus' words on salvation and forgiveness of sin.

I don't want any of his words as it comes to my financial life.

I want all that myself.

And so we shake a little Jesus' words on how to get to heaven, but not on our relationships or our sexual purity or how we how we live in other particular ways and things like that.

And so we want none of his words as it pertains to our sin.

I don't want any salt shaking on that, but I do want all of his stuff when it comes to can I live in heaven when I die.

And so that's the salt view of just like taking all these different things and going, I could use a little Jesus here, here, here, and here, but not anywhere in these particular areas.

And so the issue with any of these, seeing the scriptures like this at all, um, it isn't just like that's bad, you shouldn't do that.

It's not that.

It's like you're gonna miss out on everything that it's actually built for and given for.

And that's what Jesus is getting to.

It's like, this is a gift to you.

There's something here for you that if you see it correctly, you won't see it as a list of do's and don'ts.

It's not that.

This is a story of redemption.

Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.

This is a beautiful story of God pursuing his people.

It's not a list of do's and don'ts.

It was never about that.

It's not good advice.

It's authoritative, it's supposed to shape our lives.

And when we see it as something that's like, this is not just authoritative, but it's good for us.

And it leads us to go, like, I don't want to take it as advice, I'm gonna take it all because it's all good, and so on and so forth.

If we see it incorrectly, we'll wind up in a bad spot, and that's what's happening to the Pharisees.

They just see the Bible wrong and they see it as be good, which is a good thing.

We should be good, that's great.

But it's like, man, you've missed it, you've completely missed why this was actually given in the first place.

So that's their first mistake.

The second mistake that they make was uh they ignored portions of the Bible to make it say what they wanted it to say.

They ignored significant portions of the Bible to make the Bible say what they already thought it would say and wanted it to say, and that actually benefited them.

And so Jesus uses this story from the Old Testament that they would know, and he actually says, like, have you not read?

And it's like they've actually probably memorized all of the Old Testament.

Um, and so he's really tongue in cheek, kind of be like, Have you not read?

And it's like, yes, we have read, but they have ignored this passage of scripture because Jesus uses this to argue against what they are uh saying is right.

And so he says, Have you never read what David did with his companions?

He entered and ate the bread.

It was unlawful for him to eat, it's only lawful for the priest to eat, but he gave some to him and his companions.

Like, have you never read that?

And the truth is they have, again, read that, but they've just ignored that.

They know it doesn't agree with their thinking, they know it doesn't align with their view, they know all those different things.

They know that this is a space that goes like here's everything we believe about the Bible, and this is everything that's right about the Bible.

And then they have this one piece that's like, this kind of goes against everything that we claim to believe is true.

And they're just like, tell you what we do with that.

We'll just shove that down and we won't deal with that at all.

Let's just not talk about that piece of the Bible.

And that's what Jesus actually leans on, and he's like, You're you're actually ignoring a significant portion of the scriptures that's supposed to be helping you to shape your view, and you're ignoring pieces of it in order to get your way.

So D.A.

Carson, one of my seminary professors, said that David's unlawful consumption of the consecrated bread, it's unlawful.

He did something unlawful, it created a problem for the Pharisees.

Jesus' point is not simply that rules have exceptions, but that the scriptures themselves do not condemn David for his action.

Therefore, the rigidity of the Pharisees' interpretation of the law is not in accord with the scripture itself.

And what he's saying, he's like, this if it's if the scriptures themselves do not condemn what David did, then you can't use the scriptures to condemn what my disciples are doing because this is clearly not something that isn't in line with what you're thinking.

This goes against your view, this goes against the things that you're saying are true.

And you're not allowing those things in, you're just ignoring them, and you're making it say whatever you want it to say.

You just make the Bible say whatever you want to say.

And the truth is, you can.

Like you can make the Bible say whatever you want to say.

Like you can you just snag a verse out of context and just disregard every other passage that says that your view is wrong, and you can say that God owes you a million dollars.

I'm pretty sure he said that the righteous will flourish.

I'm blessed with all the riches in the heavenlies.

It's like, come on, like we could start our own religion and make it to where we're like sending money on phone calls and God's gonna bless you because you can make the Bible say that.

And that's actually happened.

But that's not the way that the scriptures actually testify to the truth of what's actually available to us, and yet people can do this, and it happens all the time.

It doesn't just happen in churches.

I think it happens to each of us individually.

This is a mistake and a natural tendency in all of us to want to use the Bible to get our way and to make it say whatever we want it to say.

It happens all the time.

And in some sense, using the scriptures to get what you want can seem like, well, it's not it's not that bad.

Like, what's what's wrong with proof texting and like snagging out?

I can do this, and then you snag a verse and go, see, God forgives my sin, therefore I can send however I want.

It's like, mm-hmm.

That's you you miss like most of the Bible when you said that.

Uh but like you I get that you can do that, and it seems like not that big of a deal, but it's actually a huge deal.

Like, like it never leads proof texting or ignoring parts of the Bible in order to make it say whatever you want it to say.

It never leads in good direction.

So, for instance, here's just a couple of historical uh reminders of proof texting is dangerous.

The first one was uh the Inquisition.

This is when the Catholic Church basically forced people to become Christians based on this verse.

It says, look, they took a verse, and the Lord said to the servant, Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come into come in that my house may be filled.

They took this verse and they were like, Compel means compel by force.

And so what they started doing was threatening people with burning them at the stake if they didn't profess Jesus as Lord.

And it's like, and and then tons of people, believe it or not, were like, I'll be a Christian.

It's like, well, sure, they're gonna kill you if you don't.

Like they're gonna absolutely do that.

And then they started stealing their property and anything like that, and started uh looking for heresy in other people because they're like, we're gonna like snuff out all the heresies and stuff like that.

And so they would um find people realistically, it turned into finding people that they just didn't like, that they wanted to see killed, and they were like, heretic, and then they kill them.

And then the church was like, sorry, we did it in God's name.

Like that was the whole thing.

That's what they did.

Take one verse out of it, and it's like, what about love your enemies?

What about like, you know, you use compassion?

What about the way Jesus did things?

Like, no, we don't have any of that, but I tell you what, I will burn you at the stake if you don't profess Christ as Lord.

And it's like, okay, well, that's really intense, but that's what they did.

And so it's one verse that led to the Inquisition.

Uh, this exact same thing happened with slavery um here in the States, especially in the South.

Uh, slave owners uh used Paul's words on slaves obey your masters and all these things about you know slavery in the text to make it to where uh slavery was okay and they were able to justify their views of slavery, overlooking all of the passages in the scriptures about that go against man stealing and all that kind of thing.

They just overlooked all that stuff.

Um, during this time, pastors uh created a new Bible.

Maybe some of y'all know this, it's called the Slave Bible.

Um I got the opportunity to see it uh in in DC at the Museum of the Bible.

Uh but basically they they would give this to slaves and it'd select parts.

The Bible, and they would hand it to them.

And this is what Steve Ely uh in his commentary on it said this.

He said, The slave Bible aimed at neither completeness nor representativeness, presenting excerpts only, excuse me, from only 14 of the 39 books of the Old Testament.

So that's how many books they were like.

We can't show them, what is that, 25 other books of the Bible, because those things would go against our views on slavery, and we need them to think that slavery is okay.

So let's cut out 25 books of the Old Testament and only show them 14.

So 14 of 39 books in the Old Testament.

They only show them 18 of the 27 New Testament books.

The only selection from Exodus, you actually see it, go back to that last slide there.

The only selection from Exodus includes chapters 19 and 20, which is basically the giving of the Ten Commandments.

And so here at the top, if you can see it, it's verse 24 through 28.

That is the end of Genesis, I think chapter 39.

And they just cut out chapter 40 through 50, and then Exodus chapter 1 through 18, and then the next chapter they have there is chapter 19.

Exodus 1 · chapter mention Isaiah 19 · chapter mention

It's like Genesis ended at 39, and then it picked back up however many chapters later in chapter 19.

But they did this in order to try and show them that like slavery is always, they didn't want to, they didn't want the people to see, the slaves to see that Moses was sent by God to call these people out of slavery in Egypt.

He says the editors favored chapters from passages from Romans 12 and 13 that presented models of arguments for obedience, accepting one's place in the world and honoring those who God had set in positions of authority.

And so they literally just went through the Bible and gave the slaves a Bible and was like, here's the Bible for you.

And it's missing all the pieces that go against the view that we have of it.

And the thing that we actually want it to say, we've we've cut it out and made it say that thing.

And that's what they did.

And that's how they just continued slavery going forward for however many years, going like, we're doing what God has said to do.

And it's like, well, I think you're missing half of it.

But they were like, no, no, no.

We made our own Bible.

This also happened in the civil rights movement.

Pastors and churches uh developed a hermeneutic of segregation, is what they called it.

It's a it's a way of reading the Bible through a segregated lens.

Um, and so uh next slide here, they uh it says that this book, uh, the Bible told them so.

Uh it's a good book.

I would suggest reading it.

I can only read it in like certain chunks because it is so heretical in terms of like it makes me angry at like what churches and pastors were willing to tell their people, just snagging random verses to say that they're less than us, we're better than them, all those different things.

And so I'm reading it, but I gotta read it very slowly just because it makes me angry.

But this is what it says, uh Jay Russell Hawkins, the author, said pastors claim Jesus was a segregationist, as evidenced by the fact that upon his return, all nations will be gathered to him and he shall separate them one from another, Matthew 25.

That's like you just totally miss the part, the next verse really that says, and it will be sheep to his left, those who follow me and those who reject me.

This has nothing to do with race.

It has everything to do with who chooses to belong to me and who doesn't want me at all.

That's what the verse is talking about.

But they just snagged a portion of it, screenshot it, snagged it, and was like, this will be our anthem.

Jesus too was a segregationist.

It's like, this is crazy.

But it kept the churches going in those particular directions.

They also believed and they would preach to their churches, I don't have this quote, but uh, that that white people were the new Israel, and the way that Israel led to a new way of God in the promised land, that the white people are gonna modernize the world, and we're the only people who can do it.

We're the new Israel, and they snagged all these verses and were like, see, this is why we're right and they're wrong.

It's like, it's demonic.

This is what Satan did to Jesus.

He snagged a verse out of context and threw it in his face, and Jesus is like, sorry man, you can't misquote the Bible to me.

I'm the Bible.

Like God's word in the flesh.

You can't do it.

And then there's always Hitler.

You know, we can blame Hitler for a lot of things.

Hitler did this too.

Hitler loved two verses from his two favorite verses from the Bible were uh Romans 13, 1 to 7, and then 1 Peter 2, 13 to 14.

He forced Nazi Germany and all the churches in Germany.

He forced them.

They had to preach on these two passages every year.

Made them do it.

And all of these verses are basically like, be subject to the governing authorities, and if you don't, we'll kill you.

Like, be you know, you should really be obedient regardless of what they say and that kind of thing.

And he just completely snags these things out of context and is able to keep power and got power from the churches and got the backing of the church.

Because it's like, here's what it says you got to do what I want.

And it turned into this terrible, terrible thing, uh, obviously.

But my point is this happens, and when it happens, it's not a small thing because people can make this book say whatever they want it to say.

If you snag a verse out of context and just we just, I'm not gonna use the rest of the scriptures to do it.

And if we do that, it doesn't just lead us into a space where people get hurt, but we also, it does do that, and it can be far greater than anything we can possibly imagine.

But we also just miss the original intention of everything that the book is actually meant for and all these things that Jesus actually wants to give us.

And this is a thing that I think we really struggle with.

In my time, just as a 37-year-old who's been in church world for, I don't know, 20 years.

Um I've seen this happen with uh like no instruments in worship and just snagging some verses out and saying we should have no instruments in worship in our worship services.

And I'm like, what do you do with like most of David saying that like you should you know string up the harp and leer and like play those things loudly as unto the Lord?

It's like, oh yeah, we completely don't read those things.

Oh it's like okay.

No long hair for guys, as if Jesus had a crew cut.

Um some of these will be funny, some of them will be hard.

Uh must wear suits and ties and dresses to church.

I don't even know where they got that.

Jesus wore like some kind of outer garment, under garment.

Anyways.

Uh women can't go to seminary, uh, but Jesus allowed them to be disciples, but we won't.

Um divorced people can't go to seminary or serve in the church.

Uh Jesus won't hold his sin against you or your sin against you, but we will.

Basically, that's what they said there.

Um I've seen husbands be overbearing and oppressive to their wives because wives are just supposed to submit to their husbands, forgetting the very next verse that says that husbands lay down your life for your wife as Christ has done for the church.

And they're like, nah, not gonna do any of that.

She's gonna submit though and make me cake.

Like, okay, you tell me how that goes.

Somebody told me, legit, Jesus told me to turn the other cheek, and I did.

So now I can retaliate because I only have two cheeks.

And I was like, okay.

You shouldn't preach ever.

Like a little harder.

People struggle with suffering.

Like they deal with suffering, they're like, I don't know why I'm suffering.

I'm like, man, you have missed Jesus saying, in this world you will have trouble.

You're you miss the fact that he was perfect.

Like, I got I did good.

Why am I why is it hard for me?

Like Jesus was perfect and he was crucified.

Like we can't get through this world without suffering, and God doesn't show his hate towards us with suffering.

It is the nature of following the man of sorrows.

It is just part of it.

People don't like me.

They crucified him, of course.

Like this is part of it.

And so, this idea of like this this beautiful gospel, and the gospel is beautiful, but like this um what's it called with uh the prosperity, thank you very much.

The prosperity gospel and like all this different thing is like, man, I believe we will prosper in Jesus' name.

But I believe a lot of that prosperity comes the way that Paul says, like, I can rejoice in my sufferings because I know what he's doing in that in that work.

I can rejoice in my hardships, not because I'm I'm gonna get like riches of gold after this, and if I suffer long enough, it's like, yo, you were being formed into the image.

You get to know him better in your sufferings.

And that's what Paul says in Philippians 3.

Like, I want to know you, and I get to know you even in your suffering.

As I suffer, I get to experience what life is like with you, and you walk through me in these, uh walk through with me in these hard spaces.

People changing the definition of sin in order to justify their sin.

It's always really interesting when they're like, I'm justifying sin.

It's like, well, you're not though, right?

Like you're justifying your sin.

Like you, it's it's really easy to do that.

Again, you can make the Bible say whatever you want.

Um, God forgives me so I can sin however I want.

Again, overlooking the fact that Paul says, he literally says the exact same thing because people said it to him, like, well, if grace abounds when sin abounds, why don't we just sin all the more?

And he's like, literally, they think some commentators think that what Paul says next is a cuss word.

It's like, no, like that is not right.

Like, do not sin so that grace abounds.

That's not what I'm saying.

Just because don't take it captive and all the different things, but we still do that.

People that say, God told me to, God told me to tell you this, and then the thing they tell you is the most hurtful thing in the entire world.

I'm like, I think your God is meaner than mine.

Like, I think we have a very different definition of like God told me to, and then you go do something anti-biblical.

And I'm like, I don't think he would do that.

Like, that's just not.

And I think if if if if I'm honest, and if you're honest, I think maybe we've probably done this, and we can point to spaces where we've done it, but I think more than anything, we've probably been hurt by this.

Like, people do this, snagging verses out of context and using it against certain people, and that's what drives people away from Jesus, away from the church.

And normally when I talk with people who have been hurt by people within the church and they say, I don't believe in God because X, I normally go, I don't believe in that God either.

I don't know who gave that to you, but that's not him.

And that's not who I'm calling you to believe in either.

You've just been given a bad lot.

Somebody told you who he was, who he actually wasn't.

And so the tragedy in all of this stuff, one, is that you can use the scriptures to manipulate, but it's supposed to bring life to people.

Like it's supposed to, like it is words of life given.

It is supposed to revive our souls.

If your word had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

Like it's supposed to be this stabilizing thing.

And so to ever snag verses out of context to get what we want, we lose all of that.

All the gifts and all the promises that come with the actual true scriptures, when we try and force it to say what we want it to say, we miss out on what it's actually supposed to do for us, and we don't get that back until we actually repent and come back to what it actually says.

And then in the process, we can hurt a lot of people.

And this is what Jesus is pointing to with them.

Not only is your view wrong, Pharisees, you're reading this wrong, but you're also ignoring pieces of the Bible so that it says what you want it to say, so that you stay in power, so that people think that you're awesome, and so that you're able to look down on everybody else.

You're reading it wrong, and you're forcing it to say something that's not right.

And then he gives what he wants us to view the law as in the way that he wants us to see it.

And that's the Jesus wants us to see God's law not as be good or anything else for that matter.

Not as be good, but as for our good.

But he wants us to see the law as being given for our good.

This is what he says.

He says, the Sabbath was made for you, not you for the Sabbath.

This command was supposed to be a gift for you.

God's law and the giving of his law was not the an initiative force behind it.

Wasn't like, I just want them to behave.

It was like, I just want to bless them.

I just want to bless them to give them these commands that ultimately lead them into life.

And so the law to rest was so that they would just experience rest and restoration, so that they would look around at every other nation around them and go, like, you guys have to work for it.

Well, we get a day to take it off where God just works for us and he does the work and he's able to care for us.

And they're just missing all of that.

And he's saying, like, you need to see God's word and God's command as something that's for your good.

He's not trying to make you behave.

That's not why he gave you the command, he's trying to actually bless you.

And I would argue that all of the scriptures, that Jesus isn't just referencing the Sabbath, I would say that he's referencing all of the scriptures.

Going back into the Old Testament, every single law, he would say, like, every law is given not to make you behave or to make you be better.

It's not that.

It's in order to actually bless you and to lead you into a space where you experience life with me.

If you consider the fact that all of the Old Testament, that God wanted to dwell among his people, I just want to dwell among his people.

But he's like, but I can't, because my presence and sin don't jive very well.

My presence crushes sin.

So if there's sin in the camp, it's gonna annihilate everybody.

So here's what I want you to do I'm gonna give you a bunch of commands to go and follow.

Not so that you be better, but so that you create an atmosphere where I, my presence can actually dwell among you because that's the goal.

The goal isn't behave, the goal is I want to be with you.

And when I'm with you, you'll experience blessing.

And what they did is they took all of the laws of the Old Testament and they started thinking, if I be good, God will bless me.

And so they just started doing the law and forgot that like the only reason you're blessed is because God is among you.

It's not go do X and then you'll receive blessing.

It's not that.

It's like when you when you do these things that I've asked you to do, it creates an environment where God is able to dwell among you, and the blessing comes from Him, not from the law.

The law doesn't generate the blessing, God does.

And so your crops will be blessed, not because, like, oh, you, you know, Sabbathed and now it made the land better, although that may be true too.

But it's not that it's like you you followed me and you created a space for me to where now I dwell among you, and the person who grows your crops is among you.

And so crops grow because the grower is here, like I'm here.

Your land is protected, not because, oh, that you really nailed all 10 of those.

You're you're crushing it.

It's not that.

Your land is protected because you've created a space where the protector can be among you.

It's always been about my presence among you.

It's always been about that.

It's never been about the law itself, just go and be good.

It's like create a space where I can be with you.

This is why Jesus says, I came not to abolish the law as if it's bad.

I came to fulfill it.

Because you guys can't fulfill it, and my presence can't dwell among you, and you can't experience the blessing of that.

And so what I'll do is I'll fulfill it, and then I'll go to the cross and create a space where consistently and forever, God's presence won't just dwell among you, but it will dwell within you.

And this, even though we struggle with sin, it doesn't keep his presence and kick his presence away.

We still get to experience the blessing of those things.

And so, what Jesus is getting at in this particular text, he's saying, this law of Sabbath is a gift for you.

And if you see it any other way, you're gonna miss the gift.

The same with have no other gods but me.

That's a gift to you.

It's not, I'm I'll be really mad if you don't.

Like it's not like he's saying, if you have another God, it will do nothing for you.

It's not gonna help you in any way whatsoever.

Like other gods don't protect you, they won't provide for you, they can't save you, they can't do any of these things, they're just nothing.

And so have no other gods so that you experience my salvation and you experience my presence, you experience my goodness and my blessing and all those things.

It's not do this or else.

It's like do this because the other one's a lie.

And he does this with envy and with lying or bearing false witness and all these things.

Like, don't envy.

And it's like, why?

Because I care so much about your behaviors.

Like, no, envy steals from you, man.

Like it makes you hate the stuff that you have and long for the stuff that you don't have, and then you hate your neighbor, and then you might move into that space and take from them.

It leads to a bad space.

And the command is a gift to try and protect you and to help you and to actually bless you, not something like, okay, I just need to really work hard at not envying.

No.

It's this thing that he's offering to us consistently and saying, I am literally trying to give you commands that lead you into fullness of life, and you don't know how to get there yourself.

And so I'm gonna command you with things that help lead you into those spaces.

And so that's what Jesus is getting at.

Everything that he calls us to in the law, everything that he calls us to, was ultimately a space to go, like, I am just seeking to gift you with something.

I am trying to drive you into blessing.

It is not, I'm commanding you to be good, I am commanding you so that you experience these things for your good.

I'm trying to lead you into that.

And I would say the same is true for us today.

He is not simply calling us to obedience.

And in order to behave, he's actually trying to get us into a space where we experience his life with us.

And so he doesn't call us to give our money sacrificially in order for us to be good people.

He's like, give your money sacrificially and then you'll be a good person.

Like, no, that's dumb, and nobody wants to do that.

And I can probably make other people think I'm a good person in other ways.

Um, or I can fake and lie about actually giving sacrificially and tell you all I do, and then you'll think maybe I'm a good person.

Like, no, that's not the point.

Because there's so many ways around that.

He calls us to give um sacrificially because it's a gift to us.

It frees us from this, like, the tyranny and the prison of like being chained to our money and chained to our wealth and thinking that this is the only way that we'll be provided for.

It actually sets us free.

And so he calls us to do that because it's actually good for us.

He doesn't call us to confess our sins one to another so that we're good people or good Christians.

He calls us to confess our sins one to another and pray for each other so that we may be healed.

Because confession actually kills sin, and the sin that we don't want to struggle with anymore, we confess it to death.

So he's not saying this to shame us, like you need to confess or else.

It's like you get to do this thing that leads to greater life.

He doesn't call us to forgive those who've wronged us just because it's right.

He calls us to forgive those who've wronged us because holding a grudge breeds bitterness, it breeds anger, it harms you, it harms the relationships around you.

And he's just saying, please go and forgive that person so that you don't stay locked in this prison.

And if you think, like, well, I gotta be a good Christian and go forgive them, it's like, okay, that's that's a lesser vision.

You should see it as like he's actually trying to lead you into a space of freedom.

He doesn't call us to follow him because he's like, if you follow me, then I'll like you.

It's not that.

He wants us to follow him so that we he's able to lead us into the life that he actually has for us.

And so I experienced this this past two weeks ago.

We went to Mexico.

God didn't call me to go to Mexico, like, be a good person, go serve the poor in Mexico.

That's not what it was.

I was like, go, go, go do this thing, follow me in this thing.

And many of us were able to be a part of that.

And it was just this space where like we handed the keys over to these people, uh, the brand new house, these poor people that didn't have a house.

And it was like they're weeping and thrilled and just rejoicing, and the two of the like their 18-year-old boys are like jumping up and down, giddy with like little girls, like this is amazing.

It was so great.

And then from that, like that whole experience for me, I'm like, man, what it did in my heart and the joy that it gave me in my heart just serving those people there.

I was like, man, this is why Jesus calls us to follow him.

It's not like follow me and because I need you to be good and I'll like you if you do.

It's like, I have a gift for you.

If you will go and do these things, you will not only be able to see the gift of God that I have for those people and they'll experience it, but you will experience something inwardly.

Following me leads to fullness of life, and following me by serving the poor does something in you that you will not experience any other way.

And so his call to go and do those things is like not, you should feel bad, you didn't go.

It's not that.

It's just saying, I am asking you and begging you to go, like, would you please do what I say, not because it's what I say, but because it has something for you that you're actually looking for and longing for, and that's what he's trying to bless us with.

And so for us, I believe we should read the scriptures a ton, but I think we need to read them correctly with a view of like, these things are good for us.

Every command in here is still good for us.

It is no longer a thing that can condemn us, we're no longer held by the law, but these things are good for us.

And his call to follow him is always this space where he's like, I'm trying to lead you into something greater.

And so if there's ever space where he's leading you and asking you, would you please come and follow me in this?

It's not because he's trying to harm you, he's actually trying to bless you.

And we also don't need to read these things in a way that, like, I think it says this.

I want it to say this, because when you do that, you steal from what he's actually trying to give you, you steal from what it's actually gonna say.

It'll do damage to you and it'll do damage to others.

I want to finish just with a question of what he's asking you, what is Jesus asking you?

What is he asking you to do?

Maybe you know, maybe you know exactly what he's asking you to do, but um I think if it's true that according to this particular passage, that he is seeking to lead us into a space that's good for us, I think he's constantly trying to get us to follow him and commanding things of us, again for our good.

And so the question is, what is he calling you into?

Because I think there's always steps that we can take to follow him, not in order to be good, to make him love us more, but to experience more of what he has for us.

And so what is he asking you to do?

Maybe it is truly like confess your sin.

You need to find somebody and just confess your sin to them.

Let them pray for you.

You're longing for healing and for this to never, this sin to stop ruining your life.

Like, confess it.

He's given you what to do.

It'll feel hard, it'll feel difficult, it might feel shameful, but like this is a gift for you to crucify that sin.

Maybe it's to work on your marriage.

Maybe he's asking you to work on your marriage to bite the bullet and go to counseling.

I just went to counseling for three days straight in Chicago.

It was difficult and hard and painful and emotional, and I'm tired from doing it, but it's really good for us.

And uh, but in my family, man, you did not go to counseling.

You figured out, you bootstrapped that thing, and you make your marriage great.

It's like, yeah, that was not working.

Um, I needed help.

And maybe the scriptures are true that more counselors make better plans.

Um, and so maybe that's true for you.

Maybe you need to work on your marriage by biting the bullet and going to counseling.

Maybe it's to forgive that person who's hurt you, maybe it's to apologize to the person that you hurt, have a hard conversation that you've been putting off.

Maybe Jesus is calling you to step out in faith and trust him in different spaces.

Maybe he's calling you to be baptized.

It's like, ah, I'm older now, I should have done it as a kid or whatever, I don't know.

But he's never calling you into something to harm you, he's calling you into a space and he's actually trying to bless you.

To me, when things are difficult, when Jesus calls us to do things that are challenging, uh, it's helpful to remember that um if his ultimate aim for our good led him to the cross, he was like, I'll literally show you how how aimed at your good I am by giving my life for yours.

Um anything that he calls us into is not something, Rainey said this the other day, that he's never going to sin against us.

The thing he's like, I want you to do this, it's never gonna be sin against us that breeds death.

Everything that he calls us into maybe may be difficult, maybe challenging, but it will always lead to greater and greater life.

And if we see his word as a to-do list of rules, well, we might do what he says, but we'll miss the gift.

If we see it as advice, then we will never do the hard stuff and we'll only do the easy things that Jesus calls us to and we'll miss stuff.

But if we see it as everything I'm asking you to do is a gift for you, then we'll step in obedience towards him and do those things and experience more of what he has for us.

And so I want that for you.

What is he asking you to do?

Uh, worship team, y'all can come on up.

I'd love to end by uh what we're gonna sing and do communion and stuff like that.

But I'd love for us to just take a second and just spend some time in silent prayer, um, asking the Lord, like, Lord, what are you asking of me?

What do you want me to do?

And maybe it's already there, like maybe you already have it.

But I'd love for you to just close your eyes, bow your heads.

It's a it's a get to, not a have to.

I'm not gonna force you to do it, nor am I checking the room to be like, it's every eye closed.

I'm not doing that.

But I'd encourage you to just close your eyes and just spend some time asking the Lord, what are you asking of me?

Where are you trying to lead me into the blessing?