HOFC Sermon Archive: April 2025

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SERMON TIMELINE

1. Introduction

2. John the Baptist

3. The Baptism of Jesus

4. Temptation of Jesus

5. The Preaching Ministry of Jesus I

6. The Preaching Ministry of Jesus II

7. The First Disciples

8. A Teacher with Authority

9. At the Home of Simon and Andrew

10. Jesus Cleanses Leper

11. Jesus Heals the Paralytic

12. Jesus and the Tax Collector

13. Jesus Questioned About Fasting

14. Of Wine and Wineskins

15. Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath

Today is Sunday. April 13^th, 2025

INTRODUCTION

Over the last couple of weeks we have followed Jesus on His ministry of preaching repentance and for people to trust the Gospel. Along the way we have read of Jesus gathering disciples. Some whom He chose, and others who chose to follow.

We left off with Levi (Matthew) the tax collector being called by Jesus to follow Him, and in his excitement, Levi invited those he worked with, tax collectors and other non-religious Jews (sinners) to have a feast.

It was during this feast Jesus was confronted about He and His disciples not fasting. Jesus explained that there would be a time to fast, but not while the bBridegroom was present, but after He was taken away.

He then gave the illustration of the new patch and old clothing, and new wine in old sineskins, to demonstrate that the New Covenant which He brought could not be contained in, nor could you receive blessings from it, if you tried to apply it with the old.

We see an example of this false teaching corrected when Paul send the Galatians a letter, shocked, that they were teaching a “different gospel” (Galatians 1:6-7) warned them for teaching that you needed Christ AND circumcision, that if they accept that false teaching (mixing obtaining Salvation in Christ WITH anything else) then “Christ will be no benefit to you.” (Galatains 5:2-4)

This is what Jesus was illustrating with new wine in old skins. It would “burst” and you would lose the wine and the wineskin.

Today we will read the following verses where we see Jesus and His disciples accused once again by the religious people.

Notice the theme here with Jesus. Everytime He turns around, someone is accusing Him of not being religious enough. Accusing Him of breaking rules, not living by God’s Word, being blasphemous for not obeying what the religious people said were “the rules” of faith.

Yet, Jesus IS the Word, and perfect, holy, spotless, unblemished, sinless.

In this world, you will be accused, not just by those who have rejected God, but by those who claim to be His very servants. Those who claim to be followers, but they only follow themselves, and their own beliefs.

I find it interesting that we see in the Gospel of Mark “religious” attacks on Jesus by religious people and Jesus corrects them with illustrations they should understand.

Instead of the win Jesus gives us (His teachings) in the wineskin prepared to contain and preserve it (the New Covenant), religious people create their own teachings, and try to place it within the container of the New Covenant.

When it doesn’t fit, they sometimes create for themselves a new container outside of the New Covenant.

This is why we have an overabundance of denominations, and also cults.

Let’s read about Jesus correcting the religious people about the Sabbath.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE

Mark 2:23-28

“23 And it happened that He (Jesus) was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And He *said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; 26 how he entered the house of God around the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the [showbread, loaves of presentation] consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And Jesus was saying to them, “The Sabbath was made for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of the sabbath Sabbath. 28 Consequently the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

The Pharisees (religious people) said it was not lawful for the disciples to pluck and eat some grain. Though this was contrary to rabbinical tradition, it was not unlawful.

Jesus replies with two notable points.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

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

For followers of Christ, especially taking into account Jesus speaking of this immediately after correcting the religious people about new wine and new wineskin, that for those of us who trust in the Gospel and belong to the New Covenant, we are no longer bound by the old.

However, just like the religious people during the days of Jesus, man has a desire to “add” to the covenant of God. Not only add-to, but then expect others to adhere to the traditions man added.

Acts 15:10-11 “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”

Mark 7:5-9 “And the Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?” 6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors Me with their lips,

But their heart is far away from Me.

7 But in vain do they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’

8 Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

9 And He was also saying to them, “You are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.”

I. THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN

a. The institution of the Sabbath

i. First commanded to Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 16:23-30)

ii. It had previously been unknown to them (Nehemiah 9:14)

iii. It was codified in the Ten Commands (Exodus 20:9-10)

iv. It was part of the Covenant not given to the patriarchs, but to Israel.

1. Deuteronomy 5:2-3 “Yahweh our God cut a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 Yahweh did not cut this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today.”

b. The basis of the Sabbath

i. It’s based on the fact that God Himself rested on the Seventh Day (Exodus 20:11)

1. Do we find our rest on the Sabbath Day in the New Covenant, or in the Lord of the Sabbath?

2. Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

3. No mention of finding rest on the Sabbath day, but in the Lord of the Sabbath.

ii. Theologically speaking, the Sabbath is given as what is called a “prolepsis” in Moses’ account in Genesis 2:3

1. Prolepsis refers to speaking of a future reality as if it’s already present, especially in relation to salvation, resurrection, or glorification.

2. For example, Paul often speaks of believers as already:

a. Justified (Romans 5:1)

b. Glorified (Romans 8:30)

c. Raised with Christ (Ephesians 2:6)

iii. It was given to Israel as a special sign between them and God (Exodus 31:13-17)

iv. And it was given to them to remind them of their slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15)

So, the Sabbath was given ONLY to Israel as part of the Law of Moses.

Man was made first, existing for thousands of years before the Sabbath was ever commanded. Therefore, as Jesus says, the Sabbath was made for men, not man for the Sabbath, and the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

II. THE SON OF MAN IS LORD OF THE SABBATH

a. With authority to interpret its use

i. Jesus, the Son of Man, and Son of God, ever one with the Father

ii. He gave the Sabbath in the first place!

1. John 1:1-2

2. John 8:58

3. John 10:30

4. John 17:21

iii. Jesus gives the example of David and his men from 1 Samuel 21:1-6

iv. In Matthew 12:5-8 of this account another example is given.

1. “have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? 6 But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

v. Jesus says often to the religious people, “have you never read…”

b. What was the point Jesus was making?

i. A higher law, where it conflicts with a lower, suspends or limits the lower at the point of contact.

1. Thus the higher laws of worship in the temple suspended the lower law of Sabbath observance, and thus also the higher law of mercy suspended the lower law as to the showbread when David took it and mercifully gave it to his hungry followers, and when God in mercy permitted this to be done. ~ J.W. McGarvey, The Fourfold Gospel

ii. Therefore, the disciples are justified in plucking and eating grain on the Sabbath by the higher law of Christ.

iii. Christ was justified in permitting them to eat by the law of mercy, which was superior to the law that rendered the Sabbath day to God as a sacrifice.

iv. Jesus, using scripture, silenced their objection which was based on tradition.

c. Jesus has authority to rescind its use

i. If Jesus so willed, He could discontinue the Sabbath requirement because “all things are upheld by the word of His power” Hebrews 1:3

ii. In fact, Jesus has brought the Law (of which the Sabbath was part of) to an end!

1. Through His death on the cross - Ephesians 2:14-16

2. Having nailed it to the cross - Colossians 2:14

3. Jews who come to Christ die to the Law - Romans 7:4-7

4. The Old Covenant has been replaced by the New Covenant – 2 Corinthians 3:6-11; Hebrews 8:6-13

iii. The fact that Jesus has ended the Sabbath requirement is quite evident in scripture

1. "Therefore, no one is to judge you in food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day" - Colossians 2:16

2. "One person judges one day above another, another judges every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind." – Romans 14:5

3. Thus Christians assemble on the first day of the week to worship - Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2

Sunday, the first day of the week, is when the resurrection took place (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1)

On the Jewish calendar, Saturday is the seventh day, and Sunday is the first.

1 Corthinians 16:1-2 “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to [a]set something aside, saving whatever he has prospered, so that no collections be made when I come.”

Acts 20:7 “And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began speaking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.”

-- As Lord of the Sabbath, He has chosen to rescind its use

Therefore, follower of Jesus meet on the first day of each week.

CONCLUSION

Controversy over the observation of the Sabbath has been around for a long time.

The manner of its observance was a major issue during Jesus’ ministry

The need for its observance is still questioned by some today

However, when we pay close attention to the teaching of “The Lord of the Sabbath”

We should reach conclusions based on scripture rather than the tradition of man

We will find that the Lord who ordained the Sabbath has rescinded its use

While we appreciate the role of the Sabbath in Israel’s history, let us be sure that it is the Lord of the Sabbath we worship, by obeying all that He commands, and not the Sabbath itself.

NEXT WEEK: “Part 16: Hardened Hearts”

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Friday, April 18, 2025

Gospel of Mark Part 15: Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath