Matthew 12:1-14
Remember that Jesus just finished talking about taking up His yoke and His burden, then will you find rest for your souls. The safety, security and rest that we search for in only found in being yoked with Jesus- following His way, obeying His Word, staying on that narrow path of affliction
Being in the corn-fields, the disciples began to pluck the ears of corn: the law of God allowed it,
Deuteronomy 23:25 When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.
The Pharisees did not quarrel with them for taking another man’s corn, but for doing it on the sabbath day. Christ came to free his followers, not only from the corruptions of the Pharisees, but from their unscriptural rules, and justified what they did.
The Pharisees distinguished themselves from the Sadducees by their zeal for the traditions of men, which they held to be equal to the Word of God. With the completion of the Mishnah (written compilation of the oral law, rituals, and traditions) in about A.D. 200, and the Talmud (the combination of the Mishnah and the Gemara [three centuries of the rabbis’ commentary on the Mishnah]) in about A.D. 500, the Pharisees’ teaching became virtually synonymous with Judaism. Ironically, it was their zeal for the law that caused the Pharisees to become focused on rituals and externally keeping the law. They abandoned true religion of the heart for mere outward behavior modification and ritual, leading Jesus to scathingly denounce their pseudospirituality: The complex set of man-made rules and regulations was a crushing, unbearable burden.
Matthew 15:9 “And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
The word “doctrines,” here, means the requirements of religion – things to be believed and practiced in religion. God only has a right to declare what shall be done in His service; but they held their traditions to be superior to the written word of God, and taught them as doctrines to be binding
Jesus meets a group of these Pharisees, most likely spies sent from Jerusalem to find an accusation against Him and Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of man. These words assert that the Sabbath (Hebrew word meaning to repose, desist from exertion) came within the limits of His jurisdiction as the Messiah, just as the power to forgive sins had been claimed by Him under the same title. This title Son of Man asserts the authority of Him who bears it to determine how the Sabbath is to be observed in the Kingdom of God. He had this authority from the beginning:
Daniel 7:13-14 13 “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.
14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.
Thus Jesus declares to these men that as the Son of Man, He has authority over all things- even the Sabbath
Mark 2:27-28 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
The Sabbath is one of the 10 commandments. The first four reveal our duty to God, the last six reveal our duty to man. The command to keep the Sabbath is the 4th, falling under our moral duty to God. The situation concerning Old Testament law [the Ten Commandments] is one of fulfillment in the New Testament and not one of abandonment. Christ Himself was careful to summarize this aspect during the Sermon on the Mount. ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill’” (Matthew 5:17)
Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
To keep the Sabbath holy refers to making, pronouncing or observing the day as clean and pure, consecrated, dedicated, hallowed and sanctified.
The Sabbath is God’s provision to weary men, and the Kingdom of Heaven, whose royal law is love, has no interest in its abolition. “Just as thou shalt not murder” is still a moral commandment, Jesus changed the law of murder to include an attitude of the heart that HE called “hate”:
1 John 3:15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
All commands have a spiritual principle of love from the heart. If you have been following us on Wednesday nights, we have been talking about God writing His laws on our heart. I do not murder my neighbor because I love him. I do not sleep with someone who is not my spouse because I love them. All these commands are governed by 1st our love for the LORD and 2nd a love for others.
The Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day—In what sense now is the Son of man Lord of the sabbath day? Certainly not to abolish it— HE said it was instituted for MAN—but to own it, to interpret it, to preside over it, and to ennoble it, by merging it in the “Lord’s Day”. This is within His authority
Revelation 1:10 “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet”
Joshua 5:12 The manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land.
On the fourteenth day was the Passover; on the fifteenth, Israel ate of the produce of the land. From that day the manna fell no more—i.e., on the sixteenth day of the first month of the year of their entering the land of Canaan, it was not found. On the sixteenth day of the second month of the first year of the Exodus, it first appeared (Exodus 16:1; Exodus 16:7; Exodus 16:13-14). Thirty-nine years and eleven months it fell, except on the Sabbath. It kept Sabbath all through the wilderness, on the seventh day of the week, and it finally ceased, kept Sabbath (vay-yishboth, Hebrew) on the very day afterwards marked by our Lord’s resurrection, which became the Lord’s day. The coincidence is too remarkable to be overlooked. It is the risen Christ who takes the place of the manna, rising on the first day of the week- Sunday.
WE see then that the first apostles met on the first day of the week- “the Lord’s Day”
Mark 16:9 [Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.
John 20:1-2 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene *came early to the tomb, while it *was still dark, and *saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she *ran and *came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and *said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”
Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.
1 Corinthians 16:1-2 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.
ALL AUTHORITY has been given to Jesus and He delegated His authority to His disciples. (Authority is delegated. I was manager and I had to fire someone. “I will call the boss” I am operating under the boss’ authority-)
They met on the first day of the week as authority was given them to meet and the church continued to do this for the last 2000 years. NO, Jesus did not say “Gather on the first day of the week”, but from Scripture we can assume that they were following Christ’s orders for the church. (Constantine made Sunday the legal day for the church, some say this was the antichrist changing days, but this was hundreds of years after the church was already meeting on Sunday)
Jesus said, “Why do you call me Lord and not do what I say?”
There is a spiritual principle for keeping the Lord’s Day. God instituted a day of rest, that is to be set apart and be holy. For the Jews, it was Friday evening to Saturday evening. After the resurrection on the first day of the week, the apostles deemed this the Lord’s Day- this being a SURE SIGN that Christ was Messiah and Lord over sin and death, but also Lord over Time. There is still a principle of every 1 in 7 days that is to put set aside to honor the Lord and make that day holy.
Colossians 2:16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a [a]festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
the Sabbath days – Greek, “of the Sabbaths.” PL. The word Sabbath in the Old Testament is applied not only to the seventh day, but to all the days of holy rest that were observed by the Hebrews, and particularly to the beginning and close of their great festivals. These are what is meant when Paul said, “let no man judge you”. There is no evidence from this passage that he would teach that there was no obligation to observe any holy time, for there is not the slightest reason to believe that he meant to teach that one of the ten commandments had ceased to be binding on mankind. If he had used the word in the singular number – “the Sabbath,” it would then, of course, have been clear that he meant to teach that that commandment had ceased to be binding, and that a Sabbath was no longer to be observed. But the use of the term in the plural number, and the connection, show that he had his eye on the days which were observed by the Hebrews as festivals, as a part of their ceremonial and typical law, and not to the moral law, or the Ten Commandments. These commandments are, from the nature of moral law, of perpetual and universal obligation. (talk about HRM)
Think about this, Israel came under judgment in part for not keeping the Sabbath a holy day:
Ezekiel 20:13 But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes and they rejected My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; and My sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them.
Ezekiel 20:16 because they rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they did not walk in them; they even profaned My sabbaths, for their heart continually went after their idols.
Ezekiel 20:21 But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, nor were they careful to observe My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; they profaned My sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness.
Ezekiel 20:24 because they had not observed My ordinances, but had rejected My statutes and had profaned My sabbaths, and their eyes were on the idols of their fathers.
Ezekiel 23:38 Again, they have done this to Me: they have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My sabbaths.
Listen up saints, there is a spiritual principle here. Just as there is a certain time that if you go without food or water, you will die. You can live from 8-21 days. The sun rises and sets at a particular TIME. God is a God of order and time. HE IS LORD OF TIME. There is a certain time that we are to set apart one day in seven for a day of rest and honoring of the Lord. We are not Jews- so we do not observe the Sabbath the same way they do- but we have a mandate one day in seven is set apart and holy unto the Lord.
Dr. Baird says the church has a mission and a mandate. This is why inside the walls of the church the government cannot tell us what to do. GOD governs the church, not man.
Our mission: Matthew 28:19-20 Go [a]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [b]Amen.
Our mandate: (this is a command from authority to ACT in a particular way)
Hebrews 10:25-26 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together (this is the PUBLIC GATHERING), as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
When we gather as the BODY- we worship, we pray for one another, we encourage one another, we love one another, serve another, we receive the Word, we are refined, corrected, refreshed, and built up in order to continue our mission. While YOU are the temple of the Holy Spirit- WE are the temple together being built up. This is an important principle.
If He is your Lord, why is HE not the Lord of the Sabbath? IF He is Lord of time, days, months seasons and years. If He is Lord of all, is He not Lord of time? And if HE is Lord of time, is HE Lord of your time? If He is not Lord of your time, He is not Lord of all.
Like I said this is a principle of love. You can be religious about coming to church and miss the mark. This would be a Pharisee. You can also say you love Him and continually skip church and you miss the mark. If you love Him, you obey Him. We do good on the Lord’s day, we lay hands on the sick, we can help widows and children-= it is His day to honor Him and do His work. He is the Lord of TIME. One day out of seven, He asks us to fully come and rest in Him and honor Him with our time.
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
I believe that if more people honored the Lord’s day and the Lord’s house, by remembering it and keeping it holy- we would see a greater move of God. I believe we would see more healings, more miracles, more salvations, more deliverances. Some of you are not experiencing the victory because you refuse to honor the Lord and His house. Some are weary and tired because you are not taking that one day in seven to be refreshed and renewed. We honor Him with our time because we love Him. When we honor God and His commands, He honors us and gives us His day of rest. One day we will enter into His eternal rest- but for now He gives us this day. I don’t know about you, but Sunday is a beautiful day when I can come into the house of the Lord, worship Him, receive from Him and be refreshed in my heart and my soul. The church is called a sanctuary for a reason.
God is making for Himself a holy, set apart and separated people. When we gather and worship, we display to an unbelieving world there is an Almighty God and He is worthy of all glory and all praise. He is worthy of my time and my worship and my devotion. It displays to a lost generation- that God is in this place and we are a peculiar people. And if you do not think that God cares about places, then you do not read the Bible.
I want to reread what I said in the beginning:
Remember that Jesus just finished talking about taking up His yoke and His burden, then will you find rest for your souls. The safety, security and rest that we search for in only found in being yoked with Jesus- following His way, obeying His Word, staying on that narrow path of affliction. The earliest confession of faith was “Jesus is LORD” (Rom 10:9) this was in stark opposition to those of the Roman government who claimed, “Caesar is lord”. It meant that Jesus had all authority over my life, my heart, my mind, my days and HE is Lord of my time.
HE your LORD of the SABBATH- is He Lord of your time?
Pastor Crystal Krachunis preaches on Lord of Time. Please share online for others to see.
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