The Way of Rest

Introduction

Good morning. Give everyone a few minutes to take our seats. We have a good problem. We like to visit with each other. And if you’re here visiting with us this morning, we want you to know that you’re our honor guests. We’re so glad to have you with us. And please stick around if and meet some of us afterwards. We want to say hi to you and take your hand. we’re here to worship God and honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I want to start this morning. I’d like to read Psalm twenty-nine. If you’d like to read along with me, if we like to just listen. Psalm twenty-nine, all eleven verses.

Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name. Worship the Lord in holy array.

The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deers of the calf. And he and strips the forest bare. And in his temple, everything says glory. The Lord sat as king at the flood. Yes, the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will give strength to his people. Let’s worship our Lord this morning.

Verse 11 says, For the grace of God has appeared to bring in salvation for all people, turning us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, winning for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself to redeem us from lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

I will see, I will see the mercies of the Lord, forever I will see by the mercies of the Lord. With my mouth with my heart will I make no faith by faithfulness with my now will I make no faith thy faithfulness to all I will see on the mercies of the Lord forever I will see I will see I will see all the mercies of the Lord forever I will see all the mercies of the Lord I small And thou shall of the Lord thy God with all thy heart the Lord my God with all thy soul of the Lord thy God with all of my strength of the Lord thy God with all of thy God is not my name as thy server And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul the Lord thy God with all of thy soul the Lord thy God with all of thy strength the Lord thy God with all of thy bow.

Father, you are our deliverance. When sorrow filled us and grief and pain overcame our hearts, and when tears were our food day and night, you delivered us with your comforting hand.

Delivered us. When evil and all forms of wickedness surrounded us and our enemies spoke in hate against us, your righteous sword of truth delivered us. When sin and pride crept at our door seeking to devour us, we fled to the safety of your rock, and you delivered us. And whatever may come, whether grief or heartache, fear or worry, pain or evil, or temptation and pride, we will fear no foe, for we will trust in you, and we know that you will deliver us. Most of all, on this day, Lord, we remember that by your grace and through your love, we have been delivered from our own sin. When we were dead in the sin of our own pride, overcome by the shame of our failures, and while we had were hidden from your presence, you sent for us the great deliverer, Christ Jesus.

Blessed be that thought. And in all things, let us turn to you for deliverance. Amen.

Our members pretty much know the process. We’ll have some gentlemen coming down the aisles to pass some trays, and there are other ways to give, which we’re aware of. This is for our membership here. If you’re visiting with us, thank you for being here. We’re not asking for your money. This is just the process that we have adopted here to make this flow smoothly so that we can do what the Lord has asked us to do. And that’s to give back so that we can further the work here so that we can keep the lights on and we can evangelize and use that money in the best way for the Lord’s work. Please pray with me.

Acknowledging you as the true and holy God, the one who is the giver of all gifts, the one who sustains life and who is holy and worthy of praise. God, we ask as we give back some of the money that we have made for the work of the church.

And in the return, that we may take this money as a church and it may be used effectively, that we would be about the business of spreading your word, about the business of teaching people Jesus, and that this money would be well spent in the furtherance of the good news that is the gospel. This is our prayer in His name.

Paradise Value. Seven fifty nine, if you’re in the books. We sing in the first verse, second first verse, third verse, and then the course.

You would please be standing. Song after lesson will be I surrender all sound upon the wall the rain of the day and there I find you in the history in all science my day will send my horses, for your embrace, and you are grace of the deepest walls, your sovereign will be my eyes where feed may be surrounded.

I simply trust it with thou waters, and you walk upon the waters wherever you would call me. Take me deeper than my feet could have wandered, and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my same spirit where my trust is with our borders, when you love upon the waters wherever you would call me.

Please be seated. We just sang a song that referenced Peter’s struggle of faith through the storm in Matthew 16. That’s not the text we’re going to be looking at this morning. But there is, I think, a struggle of faith. There is uncertainty and doubt that is pointed out as we begin this next section in Matthew 11. And it’s from someone who may be somewhat surprising, someone who was paving the way for the Messiah. He was coming to proclaim the coming of the Christ. And yet, as we begin chapter 11, he is in prison. And he’s wondering how things are going. Are you the one who is to come, or should we be looking for someone else? Why am I sitting here in prison? If you are the Messiah, if things are going the way they ought to be going, I think John may be wondering, why am I just sitting here?

Imprisoned by Herod. Seems like I can’t fulfill my purpose. And yet, of course, we know God’s purposes are not always what we would imagine. And that’s what’s happening here with John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 11. As we move from the previous section, it was a section about mission. It was a section about going out and proclaiming the coming of Jesus and his kingdom, which Jesus himself did. And we saw the stories of him healing numerous people, exorcising demons, and then sending out his own disciples to then go and do the same sorts of things. And as we transition from the end of that discourse in chapter 10 into chapter 11, now we’re seeing how these people, these thousands of people from different towns and villages are beginning to respond to the reality of the coming of Jesus.

And so the first part of this text, chapter 11, especially, and in chapter 12 is similar, but doing something a little bit different with the confrontation with the Pharisees, is about how the people are responding to him. And I’m going to read some sections from this, so hopefully you can go read the entire thing on your own. It’s somewhat lengthy, chapter 11 and 12. But I want to highlight a few parts of this text and kind of get to what is the central concept and then work from there to open up what’s happening here in this short section leading into the next discourse in chapter 13, which is about again responses, it’s about wisdom with this information about Jesus and who he is and what we’re going to do with that.

So begin reading with me in Matthew chapter 11 in verse 1. I’m going to skip around just a little to kind of hit some highlights throughout this section, and I’ll try to let you know where I am. Beginning in verse 1, Matthew 11 in verse 1. When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? And Jesus answered them, go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Verse 16. But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, We played the flute for you, and you did not dance, and we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn. For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, yet wisdom is justified by her deeds. Then he began to denounce the cities, where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. Verse 25. And at that time Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children.

Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Look, your disciples are not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

And he said to them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and who were with him? Him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him?

And he said to them, Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep. So, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath? Then he said to the man, Stretch out your hand. And the man stretched it out and was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisee went out and conspharisees went out and conspired against him. How to destroy him. Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there, and many followed him, and he healed them all. The story goes on, and the details really are all fitting and flow with what’s happening here, but I want to just pause here and work through what we’ve already done and kind of paraphrase some of the rest of this to help us understand what’s happening in this text.

In terms of structure and what’s taking place in the book of Matthew, each time we get to the end of these discourse sections, Jesus’ teaching, in the beginning of another narrative section, there are these phrases that identify that for us. And we have this here at the beginning of chapter 11. He had finished instructing the twelve disciples. That’s the end of the discourse in chapter 10. And that tells us now there’s going to be this new narrative section. This narrative section then begins as follow-up of what we talked about earlier, the previous section, chapters 8 through 10, with 11 through 13. Now, how are people hearing this message of Jesus and what are they going to do with that? So that is the obvious application for us.

1. Come to Me and I Will Give You Rest

As we’re looking at this story and we’re thinking about how people are responding to Jesus, I want us to be thinking all through this, how would I respond to Jesus? When I’m listening to the stories of Jesus, and I’m hearing things that are said about him, and I’m seeing the things that he’s doing, how am I going to respond to that? What am I going to do with that information? How is it going to change me, or is it going to change me? And we see through the interactions of various people, there’s often hindrances to the invitation that Jesus gives. The highlight of the text, as far as I’m concerned, in chapters 11 and 12, is found at the end of chapter 11. And I want to center on that for just a moment to then work our way back through this to deal with some of these responses to him.

Verses 28 through 30 is the pinnacle of this narrative. And then from there it kind of goes downhill with the confrontations of the Pharisees and how they’re unwilling to see Jesus for who he is. And really there’s a contrast between Jesus and who he is and what the religious leaders are and what they’re doing. But in chapter 11, verse 28, he’s recognizing that God is revealed to simple people. It’s to the little children, it’s not the elite, it’s not, it’s not those who are wise and understanding. But even the most basic of people can understand Jesus and who he is. And then he says this come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is easy.

We spent quite a bit of time in this text over the last year or so talking about ideas related to discipleship, what it means to follow Jesus and what happens when we follow Jesus. And I want that to be essentially a starting place from more working this morning, that if we will listen to his invitation, if we will come to him, that is the easy yoke. That is where we find rest. That’s where we find peace. It’s not going to be in all the things in the world and all the promises that people make to us and all the directions we try to go. And that’s not going to be what brings us rest in life. That’s not going to give us peace. The place to find peace for our souls, for our psyche, for our mind, all of that is going to come from Jesus.

2. Uncertainty and Doubt: Jesus Is the Answer

This is the promise he makes. If you come to me, I will give you rest. But unfortunately, as people hear about Jesus and they know the things that he did, they didn’t always respond to him by coming to him. They responded in a number of ways, sometimes depending on their context and their situation. And what I want us to understand is these are hindrances to the rest that Jesus offers. And you may find yourself in one of these situations this morning. It may be that you’re like John. You have belief. You know this is the Messiah, at least you thought you did, and you’re wondering is this really who this is? Things aren’t going well in my life, or I thought it would be different than it is today, or I have these various struggles.

Is he really the answer? And in the midst of our uncertainties and our doubts, sometimes we need reassurance. Jesus’ responses to how they respond to him are different in each case. John sends his disciples earlier in the text in chapter 11, and he’s wondering you know, are you actually the Messiah? I know I’ve been telling people this, but what I’m seeing, it doesn’t feel like it’s lining up to me. I don’t know what John’s expectations were, but they don’t seem to be being met right now. And he’s wondering if this is really the Messiah, or he’s at least trying to point his disciples to this idea. Is this really the Messiah? And so he sends them to Jesus, and Jesus responds by quoting elements of Isaiah 35, 5 through 6.

Perfect for those who are well astute, those who understand the law and the prophets.

Now that’s a key element of this too that I want us to keep focused on. See the obvious.

We saw some of these stories in chapters 8 and 9 a couple weeks ago. The deaf are here, hearing, and the dead even are being raised up. He’s preaching good news. He’s bringing liberty to the captives. He’s freeing people of demon possession. John’s disciples, he’s saying, listen, these are the things that you are seeing and hearing. Go tell John this is what you’re seeing, because Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 35 that this is a sign of God’s coming. This is the sign of God bringing rest to his people. And all the things that are predicted in Isaiah and in the prophets, they’re all happening through me. Go tell John. I don’t know the level of John’s uncertainty or doubt. It might have been very small. But it seems present, at least to some degree.

And Jesus’ reminder here is about how he is fulfilling aspects of the Old Testament. A perfect response to someone who is a believer, someone who trusts the Old Testament, someone who trusts the prophets, someone who had been preaching the prophets himself, someone who came in the spirit of Elijah to turn people’s hearts to the ways of the Lord. This is who John the Baptist is. And maybe that’s where you are this morning. You’re going through difficulties in life and struggles. Things don’t seem like they are the way they should be. And maybe you just need a gentle reminder that Jesus is the answer for your life. With all the distractions and all the things happening around us in life, all the things pulling our attention and telling us this is the answer and that is the answer.

You can take this pill or you can go to this course or whatever it might be. I want us to understand that Jesus is the answer for rest and peace in our life. There is no other answer. Nothing else will fulfill us. And that’s what he wants John to know. Whether you’re sitting in prison or not, John, I am the Messiah. And I am the answer. This is what Jesus wants him to know. And then he’s going to do something pretty interesting here with John. He’s going to spend some time with the crowds talking about how they’ve responded not just to him, to Jesus, but also to John. And some of the problems that are that come with people who speak truth. John is a truth speaker.

3. Cynicism and Apathy

He’s preparing the way for the Lord. And now Jesus is coming and he’s speaking truth. Then one of the problems that we find in this, and maybe we suffer ourselves with this at times, is just high levels of cynicism and apathy. Have you ever felt that way? You know, someone they want to tell you about some big thing in their life or some answer they think they have. Often for me, it’s like political things, or you know, I just I don’t care. And sometimes that’s appropriate. But when it comes to the message of Jesus and the good news of what Jesus is doing, and that he is the answer and that he will bring rest. It is sad that there are people who are cynical about this type of truth.

John comes and they’ll find a problem with anything. It seems to be maybe a dominant problem that Jesus and John and other truth speakers are dealing with. People just aren’t interested. They don’t want to get involved. Or they’re willing to pick out any kind of problem or issue with any sort of person, right? So John, he comes and he’s he’s an aesthetic. He is not going into the world and eating and being involved with the things that are happening in the world. And man, this guy’s got a demon. Look how crazy he is. He’s out in the wilderness eating locust and honey. Why isn’t he like everybody else? They got a problem with that. And then Jesus comes. And they have a problem with him. He’s eating and he’s drinking, he’s involving himself with people.

He’s spending time with tax collectors and sinners and trying to change them and get them to change their life, and they look at him and say, Oh, he’s a glutton and a drunkard. Either way, they’ll find some problem. I would say cynicism is a plague in our culture. And for understandable reasons. We are lied to so frequently about so many things. And it’s hard for many of us to believe anything is true that we hear or that we see. But what’s different about Jesus is, of course, right before their eyes, he is healing people who are blind, and he’s raising people from the dead. I mean, again, see what is obvious. Tell John what you see and hear. And these people in these towns and villages, he’s going from place to place and he’s healing thousands of people.

How can this be denied? In fact, it’s not denied. When we get to the rulers later, they understand they can’t deny what he’s doing. They know that a notable miracle has taken place. He’s healed a lame person or he’s healed someone who’s blind, and so they try to attack him on different ways. It’s not that he’s not doing it, they can’t say that. Everybody knows he’s doing it. And so, isn’t it odd that even though Jesus has come and he’s doing mighty works over and over and over. Sometimes the human condition is one where we respond with cynicism, with apathy. Well, I’m just not going to get involved in that. I just don’t really care that much. And while that may be okay with certain things in life, it’s just simply not okay with Jesus.

We make a decision one way or the other. He is the pinnacle of history. He has come to deliver us from our sins, as we talked about in the prayer, and we listened to in Caleb’s prayer earlier. He is the answer to man’s problem. He is what brings rest and peace to the world if people will listen to him. He is the answer, and so to not respond to him comes with consequences. And so Jesus’ response to this is essentially, you’ve rejected John and you’ve rejected me. But wisdom is justified by her deeds. When you look and see the things that are happening, it’s obvious what is right and what is wise. And it’s the message of John, and it’s the message of Jesus. And you can try to act apathetic and you can be cynical, but if you do that, you’re wrong.

And you’re missing out on something that is powerful and amazing. And Jesus doesn’t want that for anyone. In keeping with the message of chapter 10, he told his disciples to go into the villages, the towns, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and proclaim this good news and proclaim the coming of the kingdom. And what he says is that they don’t listen, you shake the dust off your feet and you go on to the next place. That’s what you’re supposed to do. And in keeping with that message, he then follows that up here in verses 20 through 24, as he begins to pronounce woes on these various cities, because he says, if the mighty works done in you had been done in these pagan heathen cities like Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented, but you did not listen.

You were apathetic to the good news of Jesus Christ. And so it’s going to be more tolerable on the day of judgment for these pagan cities than it will be for you. These people who are supposed to be part of God’s people are rejecting God’s message.

One of the interesting things about this text in chapters 11 through 12 is Jesus’ focus on values. So math people, you will like this. He does a lot of things with kind of one thing is greater or lesser, there’s something that’s more, there’s something that’s worse, right? There’s so there’s all these sort of values, sort of dynamics and systems that are going on in this text, all the way back when he’s talking about John. He’s more than a prophet, he says in verse 9. There’s no one greater than John the Baptist, but you are who are in the kingdom, you are least in the kingdom. You are greater than thee. He, so he’s kind of using this little play on values to describe the nature of what it’s like to follow him.

And he’s using this again in 20 through 24 when he’s talking about the condemnation that’s going to come on those who don’t listen to him. It’s more bearable or more tolerable on the day of judgment for these pagan cities than for you, because you had the Messiah.

4. Arrogance and Obstinence

And the sad thing about that, of course, is that it stands in the way of his promise, his invitation. That if we will just simply come to him, he will give us rest. Part of what’s happening here, of course, is varying levels of arrogance and obstinence. Some simply want to live the way they want to live, and they don’t want to listen to Jesus and what he has to say. And so in their arrogance, they refuse to repent.

Not because they didn’t understand, not even necessarily because they’re cynical, although that may be part of what’s happening here, but the denunciation comes because they did not repent. The message is not unclear. He is bringing good news. He says he’s coming, the kingdom is near, it’s in your presence. Follow me. This is the message that Jesus gives and his disciples give everywhere they’re going. Jesus, the Messiah, has come. Follow him. Turn from your sins and follow Jesus. And what’s happening here in these cities is they refuse to repent. And their obstinence and their arrogance. Which is why Jesus says in verse 25, in his prayer to the Father that he is grateful that the little children have heard this. The idea of this being hidden from the wise and the understanding is more about their reaction, as we’ll see later in the parables.

The information is there.

But it’s the way the hearts react to it that make the difference. And so sometimes in our ideas of our own eliteness, our own greatness.

To give ourselves over to him, to let him change our life. We want to change our own life. We want to make it better ourselves. We want to think we have answers. And don’t take this too negatively, but it’s true. It’s sort of the American ideal that we can kind of pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps and make it all happen for ourselves. We need Jesus. He’s the answer.

Weight is on my shoulders and I don’t know how to get out of it. The answer is not to push harder and do more and try to figure it out myself. The answer he says is to come to him because his yoke is easy and his burden is light. The message there is that he’s the answer. Then there is the presumption and the elitism and the arrogance of the religious leaders, which we’ll spend some time on here in just a few minutes in the next section. But a lot of what he does with them is expose their own errors and thinking. They think they have it all figured out. They’ve interpreted the scriptures the right way and they know all the answers. And so they’re condemning Jesus and his disciples, and he has to expose them to the reality that actually they are wrong.

5. Sabbath Is About Rest

And they too need him desperately. As we transition from the end of 11 to 12, I really want to point out the centrality of the contrast that we’re about to see. Jesus says, I will give you rest. Come to me, I will give you rest. Take my yoke and learn from me, and the result of that will be rest. I am gentle, I am lowly, and you’re going to find rest for your souls. And what we’re going to see is that the Pharisees are exactly the opposite. While Jesus says his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

They demand and they have expectations of everybody else in ways that they will never keep themselves. They practice, they preach, but they don’t practice, right? And so Jesus warns the people about the nature of what these Pharisees are like. But now we’re going to see some examples of that in the text. And it’s really sad, actually, to see the way these people interact with Jesus. Yes, it makes us angry because we see, oh, these people are opposing Jesus and they won’t listen to him. I can’t believe they would be this way. But what I really want to pull out of you a little bit this morning is sympathy for these people. Having pity for the reality of what their life actually is, that there is no rest in this kind of life.

There is no answer, there is no peace when you are this kind of person. And so while Jesus has promised rest to them, now we’re going to have some Sabbath confrontations. And now remember, what is Sabbath about? Sabbath is about rest. It’s about healing and refreshment. It’s about rest that comes on the seventh day. It is built into creation. God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day he rested, and he looked at the world that was good, a world that he made that was good. And so Sabbath is this idea of rest that we come and we appreciate the things that we have. It’s about refreshment and healing and rest in life. But I want you to notice what the Pharisees have made it.

Jesus and his disciples are walking through the grain fields. And his disciples are plucking some heads of grain and eating along the way. And of course, the Pharisees are looking to condemn Jesus. That’s the nature of who they are and what they are. And so they begin to be critical. Your disciples are doing what is not lawful. Now, of course, built into their system are all of these ideas that they’ve come up with. Some of them are noble. It’s not as if it’s all bad and wrong. They’re trying to establish some boundaries to make sure they do not break the will of God. In their writings and the rabbinical documents, there’s 39 categories and all sorts of rules and laws that they have come up with about what you can and can’t do.

Many of these still remain today, and so you may even have like Sabbath settings on your oven or various other things in your home to not violate aspects of Sabbath, like starting a fire, also known as a light coming on when you open your refrigerator. Or those kinds of things, right? And so they I don’t wish to be mean here, but I’m just pointing out it’s a little silly. Some of this is a little silly to establish a hedge around what is the actual law. And you see the result of that happening here with the Pharisees with Jesus and his disciples. They have put so much weight on their own laws and their own interpretations of the law that what they actually end up doing is neglecting the thing that matters most to God.

What are the greatest commands? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. So the Sabbath confrontation, the Sabbath test is an appropriate time to see where they really fall. And by the way, Exodus 23, 12 and Deuteronomy 5, 14 are texts that talk about Sabbath relating to rest, if you want to check those out later. Built into the law, this is an important concept, the idea of rest on the Sabbath. What we see in these encounters with the Pharisees and Jesus, though, is they would prefer for their fellow man to go hungry for the sake of their rules. They would prefer for a man to remain disabled for the sake of their laws.

And in doing so, they violate the greatest commands, which includes the idea of loving your neighbor as yourself. And so the concept of loving neighbor yourself kind of is a foundation or it underscores a lot of what’s happening in this text. And Jesus is going to do a good bit of argumentation, a lot of which we’re not going to get into this morning. But the foundation of it essentially is that he has a special role and a special place. He ultimately says he’s the Lord of the Sabbath. So they’re really in no place to tell him what is lawful and what is not lawful. And he uses this illustration of David. David is the anointed, the Lord’s anointed. So there’s some interesting things happening here. His men are wandering around in the wilderness and they are hungry.

Now, none of them are going to starve. I think that’s an important factor here. His disciples, they’re not on the edge of starvation, but Jesus still cares that they are fed when they’re hungry. It matters to him because he cares about people. Because he loves people.

That’s exactly what the Pharisees are.

They are more than happy to leave a disabled man for the sake of their rules and to condemn and to accuse Jesus. And so in rejecting Jesus, they reject a path of rest, of peace, taking on instead a path of bitterness and hatred and wickedness for the sake of elevating themselves in a holier than thou sort of mentality. Keeping laws and rules, actually not keeping some of them, but demanding them of others to make themselves feel better about who they are, to proclaim their own righteousness. And in the midst of all of that, what they’re missing, both with the story of the hungry disciples and the man with the withered hand is that rest is the entire point of the Sabbath, not their laws. All the various laws and interpretations they came up with were only a means by which to get to the actual purpose and point, which is rest on the Sabbath.

And yet they’ve missed it all because of their bitterness and hatred.

They ask him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, purposely trying to trap him? And in the midst of all their rules, there were things about like harvesting and doing work, of course, on the Sabbath and all of that. And so just for context, the idea of Biathar, the priest in 1 Samuel 21, he’s thinking David’s on a mission. David’s on a mission from the king. His mission is more important than this other law or rule or boundary. And so I’m going to give him some of the bread of the presence. And he’s a priest, he knows what he’s doing. Part of this, maybe we should trust him as a man of God that he knows what’s appropriate. But what Jesus is doing with that is saying, David is the Lord’s anointed.

Essentially, he’s the Lord of the Sabbath. He’s on a mission for the Lord. And Jesus himself is on a mission for the Lord. He is Yahweh’s servant, as he’s going to go into in the section we didn’t read in 15 through 21. And he is gentle. He’s not out to get people, he’s not out to accuse, he’s not even out to condemn. He’s going out to save people. That’s his goal and his mission. The Pharisees are just the opposite. They’re seeking to conspire against him and to accuse him and to catch him and to trap him. That’s their religion. And it is sad what they have become. If I must choose between love your neighbor and interpretations of 39 categories of laws, I might want to give more weight to love your neighbor as yourself.

Maybe that’s the bottom line application for us. That we care about people. Because of the foundation of the law and the prophets, and then pulled forward to the New Testament are these ideals that you love the Lord your God and you love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus says this is so serious that they are guilty of condemning the guiltless. If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless, he says. Condemning the guiltless is a serious violation of loving your neighbor as yourself. R. T. Frank, in his section and his commentary, says this, and God’s scale of priorities, a positive concern for the good of others or mercy, takes precedence over formal compliance with ritual regulations.

That’s challenging, isn’t it? Jesus means for it to be. That’s part of the point. And this whole section is about priorities. What matters more? He talks about the priests earlier in chapter 12 in verse 5. So he uses this phrase twice. Have you not read? And what that phrase means is this should be obvious. Okay, that’s what he’s saying. Haven’t you read? You know, you’re Pharisees, you are scholars, you are scribes, you know the law. Have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? You know what he’s saying here? Every Sabbath, the priests are doing sacrifices, they’re doing all kinds of things that you would consider work. But we understand that in keeping what God wants for the Sabbath, they’re doing that, right?

So there are exceptions. We have to put things together and decide what matters most. What is the priority? Clearly, the priests offering sacrifices and doing their service in the temple was a priority. And so they did that even on the Sabbath. And so Jesus is using a few nuances and working through the law, but even more than that, what he’s telling them is something greater is here. The thing that you’re preaching and you’re teaching, something greater than that is here now. Me, Jesus. I’m greater than the temple, I’m greater than Jonah, I’m greater than Solomon. That’s later on in chapter 12. And rather than seeking to accuse and to conspire, maybe like little children, they should just simply listen. Take his invitation at face value and realize that he is the answer, that their life of bitterness and hate and wickedness, clearly demonstrated by their desire to conspire and to accuse and to destroy someone who’s doing good things, needs to change.

And the way that’s going to change is if they will simply, in trusting faith, come to Jesus and let him change their life. Now, some of them eventually do this. Later on in the story, we learn even some of the priests are converted. Some of the Pharisees come to Jesus and they give their lives to him. And so that’s a great part of the story to realize some of these people who were obstinate, who were rejecting him in the beginning, eventually they see it for what it is and they realize that Jesus is the answer. But I want us to understand this. Harshness and conspiring to destroy in the name of holiness doesn’t align us with Jesus’ kingdom. Those are not kingdom principles and ideas. If we are unfriendly and unkind, if we are mean to people, that is not the way of Jesus.

Now Jesus is willing to confront these people in error. But it’s interesting, even in his confrontation of them, the way he handles them. And when tensions begin to mount, notice verse 15, Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. He’s not out to fight people. He’s not looking for some epic battle. He’s not trying to take people down. He’s trying to change people’s minds. He’s trying to convert them to the truth. He wants to reshape their thinking and reframe their idea of what true religion is. He wants to do all of that, but he’s not there to fight with these people. And actually, the quotation of Isaiah 42 there in that text speaks to that concept as well. Verse 19, he will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed, he will not break. He’s not going to go after these Pharisees when they’re down and kick them. That’s the idea. That’s not the kind of guy Jesus is. And that’s not the kind of person his followers are. They don’t kick people when they’re down. They’re not out to attack. They’re not out to be unkind and mean and unfriendly and conspire and attack. That is not what it’s like to be in Christ. And Jesus himself is demonstrating all of this. And of course, the Pharisees are just the opposite. As we move on from the Sabbath stories, we come to him healing someone oppressed by a demon. And the Pharisees can’t even rejoice in that. All the good work Jesus is doing, healing people of their sicknesses.

I mean, right before their eyes in the synagogue, he takes a guy with a withered hand and stretches it out. Amazing. The people are astounded. He’s going into these people who are demon-possessed and he’s healing them. This guy, notice verse 22. I love the series of statements here. Then a demon oppressed man, this guy’s oppressed by demons. A demon oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, and the man spoke and he saw. It’s so obvious. This is who Jesus is. He brings healing, he brings comfort, he takes people who were oppressed, and he gives them rest. But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, It’s only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.

Man. I just feel bad for them. I mean, how pathetic. How sad is it that they have the Messiah right in front of them doing all of these good things? And this is what they resort to.

6. We Will Give Account

Verse 38. After all this happens, and Jesus again exposes their hypocrisy and their poor logic and all sorts of problems with their interpretation, and says you’re going to know people by their fruits. Great point. You look at the results, look at the produce, see the way people act, the way they live their life, and you will know them by their fruits, Jesus says. Then these scribes and Pharisees who’ve accused them of being the prince of demons, have accused him of breaking the Sabbath, have conspired against him. They say, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. I mean, he just did nine signs in chapters eight through nine. He just healed a paralytic, a guy who had a withered hand. He just removed a demon from somebody.

What more do they want? Well, they want to accuse him. They want to find some way to entrap him. They’re not interested in truth and reality. They’re looking for some way to take him down. You will know them by their fruits. People who stand in opposition to Jesus and truth and kingdom work will reveal who they really are. But I also want us to know that we will give account. We will give account for every careless word. Everything that we say. All of these things will be, we can we can harp on other people, the Pharisees, people who we think are evil and wicked, but Jesus then brings it back around and says, We’re all going to give an account. By your words, you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

And so, even in the midst of these terrible responses, people who are evil and wicked. I want us to realize we don’t want to miss out on this opportunity to follow Jesus. Just because we can point and say people in the church are hypocrites or people in the church are evil or do wicked things. Yes, we can say all that because we’re humans. And we sin and we make mistakes, and that goes for me, and it goes for you, and it goes for other people. And so all day long we could point out the hypocrisy and the evil things that people have done, but in the end, I will still give account, and you will still give account, and we can’t show up on judgment day to the Lord and say, Well, you know, I was gonna do that, but there were hypocrites.

So I decided not to. You know, there were some evil people, did some evil stuff, and so I just said, yeah, who cares? You know, you never can find the truth. Never does work out, right? Cynical, apathetic, all the things we’ve talked about. That doesn’t work. We all are going to give an account. Every single one of us. And it’s not going to be good enough to say the Pharisees did this and the scribes did that, and so I just decided it wasn’t really worth it. We have to make a decision about Jesus. All of these responses we’re seeing here, there is another response that we’re going to see as we get to chapter 13, and that is that we let the seed germinate in our heart and we let it grow and it becomes fruitful.

Conclusion

And that is the response that God is looking for. People who are willing to grow, who are willing to accept Jesus. And I would say, even accept Jesus in the very most basic sense. Come to Him. Give your life to Him. Realize that your life without Him is a labor. It is monotonous. It is burdensome. There is no answer. It is empty. It is vain. And one day we will all wake up and we’ve done all this work and we’ve collected all this money and we have all these possessions and we’ll realize it means nothing. If we didn’t come to Jesus. If we don’t come to Him and find rest for our souls in Him.

Not too long ago, I did a whole series on the book of Ecclesiastes, where we talked all about this. Without Jesus, without God in your life, everything ends up amounting to absolutely nothing. But with Him, no matter what you’re going through, financial struggles or health difficulties or whatever, you realize it’s not about what’s here. There’s something greater. There’s something greater than the temple and Jonah and Solomon, and it’s Jesus, and He can give me rest, and He can give you rest. So don’t fall victim to missed opportunity. Jesus came and He brought deliverance to the world.

He’s removed demons. But here’s the deal. If we remove the demons and we get rid of things in our life and we never fill it with the Spirit of God, we’re just opening the door for all of that to come back in and control our life again. Don’t let that happen.

Give your burdens to him. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. And you will find rest for your souls. Can we help you do that this morning? You can begin that process by coming down to the front this morning, being buried in baptism, dying to self. That’s what Jesus calls to do us to do in becoming a new person in him, beginning to grow, to become like him, to read the gospels like we’re doing and see the way Jesus lived and begin trying to live like that. That’s what he calls me and you to both do. Can we help you do that this morning? Why don’t you come now as we stand and we sing?

Please be seated. If you haven’t gotten the emblems for the Lord’s Supper, we have men in the back who will bring them to you if you simply raise your hand and let them know that you’re in need of one.

Very softly.

I’ll begin to prepare our hearts to partake of the Lord’s supper by reading from Luke chapter twenty-three. Beginning in verse thirty-two, we read, two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him, Jesus. And when they came to a place that is called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right hand and one on his left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to define his garments, and the people stood by watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one.

There was also an inscription over him that read, This is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God? Since you were under the same sentence of condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. And then he said to Jesus, Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus replied, Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light faded, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two, and Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

And having said this, he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, Certainly, this was an innocent man. The crucifixion is full of horrible and wretched irony. You can think about the creator suffering at the hands of his inferior creation. You can think about those needing so desperately to be delivered, executing the one sent to deliver them. You may think about the crown of thorns thrust upon his head by the centurions. Or you could think about the centurion kneeling at the cross, recognizing the innocence of Jesus, the man he just executed. But among the irony that we read, we read about faith coming from an unlikely place. Faith coming from unlikely places is not unusual, especially throughout Jesus’ ministry.

You think back about throughout his ministry, you may think about the centurion with a sick servant, who knew Jesus only had to say the word and his servant would be healed. Or perhaps you may think about the Samaritan woman, a woman so jaded and flawed by her own choices and skepticism, encountering Jesus, believing and sharing with her entire village. But let’s also think about the thief on the cross. He asked something of Jesus that I find remarkable. He asked Jesus to remember him as he entered into his kingdom. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, this doesn’t seem like a peculiar request. But you have two men hanging on a cross. The cross at that time held a presumed finality. It was an instrument of death. Once you were nailed to the cross, the only thing that awaited you was your final breath.

I don’t know how much the thief knew. I don’t think he understood, I don’t know if he understood whether or not Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world. But I do know this. He had faith that the cross of Jesus was not his end. He still believed there was a kingdom yet to come. We’re the beneficiaries of that kingdom. You don’t have to have perfect knowledge to believe that Jesus died, was buried, rose from the dead, and has ascended to the throne. He is the king, actively sitting on his throne. You don’t have to have perfect knowledge to partake of this bread and this fruit of the vine to proclaim his death, his burial, and his resurrection. This morning, this is what we will do. And we will continue to do until he returns.

A day we anxiously look forward to. Would you please pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus.

We thank you for the spread that reminds us of his body. Amen. Let us pray for the cup. We continue, Father, praying and thanks. Thankful that Jesus’ blood was spilled and that he was willing to take our place. We thank you for this cup that reminds us of his blood. Amen.

This concludes our observance of the Lord’s Supper.

A few announcements, not many that I know of before we c close this morning. First of all, again, want to welcome our visitors and thank you for being here, being with us. thank you for all the men that participate in leadness of worship. We hope that the Lord was glorified. thank you, thank you, Brandt, for bringing us a portion of God’s word. just continue to please remember Beckett the Lenick and Jane Beth remains downtown, I see you for the foreseeable feature. Just pray for to find out what’s going on with Becca. Sherry tells me there’s no ladies’ class this week, so the ladies will not meet on Thursday. So if you didn’t get that text yet, please remember that.

And also group six will meet upstairs and any other announcements? Nothing I have closing song. Please be standing.

Well wonders of Jesus and his grace in the shallow and bless in the remote.

Let’s pray. Our holy God. You and you are king and master over all creation. Your thoughts and your ways are so much higher than our thoughts and ours’ ways.

It’s our prayer, dear God, that our worship has been pleasing to you. We’re thankful for the fellowship and the edification and encouragement. And we’re so thankful for the deliverance from sin provided through Jesus Christ. Who is the answer for all? May we forever celebrate and share His gift and His name. Help us, God, to number our days and remember our days here are short, full of troubles. Help us remember that nothing of the world, that no sacrifice we make here can compare to your promised rest. Help us to live godly lives in this present age when we’re apart from each other, dear Father. We pray that you forgive us of our failings and remember us, great God for good. And in all things, we give you the praise and the honor and the glory through Christ Jesus.

Amen.