Well, our scripture for this evening is going to be Mark, chapter two, Mark, chapter two, twenty three through three, six. Remember, I'm trying to look a verse up for the sermon, my mind is is going elsewhere. So usually it takes me at least 30 seconds to realize I'm in the Old Testament and another 10 seconds to figure out Mark's a gospel and it's in the beginning. All right. I found it. Hopefully you have as well. Mark, chapter two, starting in verse twenty three. And it happened that he was passing through the grain fields on the Sabbath and his disciples began to make their way along while picking heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry? How he entered the house of God in the time of Abathar, the high priest. and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests. And he also gave it to those who were with him. And Jesus 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. He entered again into the synagogue and a man was there whose hand was withered, and they were watching him to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, Get up and come forward. And he said to them, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath to save a life or to kill? But they kept silent. And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man, stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored. And the Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against him as to how they might destroy him. Some word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for all of your word. But Lord, we thank you for the accounts of the Gospels, for the account of your son, Jesus Christ, as he walked on the face of this earth, as he taught and as he lived out perfection. Father, we ask that you might use the words of this gospel and other scriptures as we read them to impress upon us how we might honor you on this, your day, Father, we ask that you would shape our attitudes and shape our hearts, that you would allow our consciences to once again be informed by your holy word, that you would apply by your Holy Spirit this word to our hearts and transform us. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, we looked last week at the Sabbath as an institution begun in creation. Is that something which is commanded upon all of mankind this side of eternity. And we kept ourselves not without exception, but largely in the Old Testament, because this week we wanted to focus on Jesus and his observance of the Sabbath. However, this week, we're not so much going to be trying to prove the continuance of the Sabbath as to observe the way in which Jesus honored the Sabbath. What was Jesus's attitude towards the Sabbath? Do we emulate him with regard to the Sabbath? So we're going to be looking at this passage and others as we move through the New Testament and specifically the Gospels with regard to Jesus and the Sabbath. Well, let's begin with a question. When's the last time you came home from work and thought, I wonder if while I wasn't paying attention, the curse has been lifted. It was today was perfect and you walked in or maybe you've been home with the kids all day and you thought and they've been perfect and everything is right in the world. It's perfect. It's heaven. I've arrived. When's the last time you opened a newspaper to find out that the curse has been lifted? Everything's OK now. When's the last time those feelings of euphoria that are felt at very good times in life, times of great blessedness, when's the last time they lasted forever? When's the last time you thought I am in the very presence of God and all is good? Well, we haven't. And we don't. And even our best times are marred by the curse that is still very much upon us. We're told in Romans that the whole of creation groans. And we groan. We groan because the battle is won. And yet, here we are. We groan because although we hope and we don't groan as those groan without hope, we still have things that are very much out of our control. Death and sickness, disappointment, heartache are very much a part of our experience. Christ has come. By faith in him, we are forgiven. We are made children of God. All things work together for good. But we're not yet with the Lord. That may seem to you as a very obvious first point. But let's start there. We're not yet with the Lord. We're not yet in heaven because we're going to come back and revisit that. But perhaps the fact that we're not yet in heaven is very much why we still have the Sabbath or the Lord's Day, because what is pictured in it. We've not yet received. Has it been secured for us? want to be clear as we start here, has what is pictured in the Sabbath been secured for us? Oh, yeah, indeed. Is there any question as to its coming? No. Is there any question that at one point you will be in the very presence of God whose right hand will hold pleasures for you evermore? No, there's no question about it. But we're not there yet. Well. Our first point this evening is that our Lord not only kept the Sabbath in some manner, but our Lord worshiped on the Sabbath. If we turn in our Bibles to the book of Luke, Luke chapter four. And beginning in verse 16, we'll read about the very beginning of Jesus's ministry. We read, And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and he stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he opened the book and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down in the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them today in this scripture today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Did you notice the very beginning of that passage? And he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue as was his custom. We might read that and think, well, doesn't mean he had to. It just meant that's what he was used to doing, right? I'm used to doing a lot of things that other people don't need to do. Well, Jesus wasn't real big on manmade rules. He wasn't real big on traditions of men, as I understand it. In the book of Mark, he says, and he said to them, rightly, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, the people, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching his doctrines, the precepts of men, neglecting the commandment of God. You hold to the tradition of men, as he was also saying to them, you nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your own tradition. We're told that going to the synagogue was Jesus's custom. So I simply pose this other various very obvious question to you. If there is only one man on the face of this earth who has ever in the entire history of mankind kept the law of God and live the perfect life. There's only one man who has ever pleased God. And it was his custom to worship on the Sabbath. Is that enough to impress upon us the need to worship on the Sabbath? You have to answer that. It strikes me that if Jesus did not like the commandments of men and this was his custom, this was his practice to go into worship, to meet with the people of God and to worship with them, to read scripture, to explain scripture, that it at least seems that this ought to be our practice to worship. Maybe I'm making too much of that, but I think in our culture today, Certainly, the Sabbath is often set aside as not being binding upon the New Testament church. And that's, again, something I'm not going to completely pick up today. But even the church itself, churches seen largely, it's kind of like a country club. It's like a volunteer organization, something you it's good to be a part of. Certainly not necessary, but it's good. It's good to do. It's good to go on Sunday. You don't need to, I suppose, but it's good to be there. We're all off work for the most part, but I think it's more than that. I think it needs to be more than that. It must be. The church isn't a volunteer organization. The church is the assembly of God. The church is the people of God. God commands his people to meet and worship. Jesus spent this day worshiping. So how do we spend the Sabbath? Well, if Jesus is any example to us, and he's certainly more than an example. I don't want to hold his life up as merely exemplary. Worship ought to be part of what we do. Our next point is that the Lord returned the Sabbath to its proper place. He didn't remove it. Any number of clashes that Jesus had with the Pharisees happened on the Sabbath. A number of them did, because that was a particularly sticky point. That was an area of religion in which they had built up many laws. In fact, they built up so many laws concerning it that they'd completely lost the blessing of it. And so when we read these passages like the passage we opened with and we'll visit again here in just a moment, it's easy for us to see Jesus's conflict with the Pharisees and to walk away and say. And think that Jesus is somehow laying aside the Sabbath, that he's criticizing them for keeping a Sabbath. And I think the reality is he's criticizing them for not keeping a Sabbath. He's criticizing them for making what is to be a rest, a burden. So we need to be careful as we look at that, but if we look at Luke chapter six, so if you turned it to Luke chapter four, this will just be another page, Luke chapter six, one through 11. This will be a parallel passage to what we read before. We read now it happened that he was passing through some grain fields on the Sabbath and his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands and eating the grain. But some of the Pharisees said, Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And Jesus answering them said, Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry? He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for any to eat except the priest alone, and gave it to his companions. And he was saying to them, The son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees were watching him closely to see if he healed on the Sabbath so that they might find reason to accuse him. But he knew what they were thinking. And he said to the man with the withered hand, get up and come forward. And he got up and came forward. And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath to save a life or to destroy it? And after looking around at them, He said to him, stretch out your hand. And he did so. And his hand was restored. But they themselves were filled with rage and discussed together what they might do to Jesus. What is Jesus doing and what is Jesus not doing? Is Jesus criticizing them for their their foolish Sabbath keeping? Or is Jesus criticizing them because they were not keeping a Sabbath? I think the Pharisees were doing a few things. If we were to look at them somewhat favorably, perhaps they were trying to keep a Sabbath, they were trying to, in a sense, keep the word of God. They built up any number of rules to fence. And to ensure that they didn't break the law of God, we do this in our own lives sometimes, if there is a particular sin, that is a temptation to me. I might stick any number of fences between myself and it. Any number of things that would be lawful for me to do, I avoid on account of the fact that I might be tempted. And that's not an inappropriate thing for a Christian to do, to set themselves up for success. To make sure that they aren't in a position where they would be tempted, and that's fine for me to do on a personal level. Perhaps it's even fine for me to suggest to you practical holiness, perhaps. But the point at which I go and begin binding upon you my rule as God's rule, that's a problem. And the point at which I start saying to you, you have kept. And obey God, if you have kept my rules, that's a problem. And the point at which you or I begin thinking I am holy, I am just because I have kept the rules that we made. That's a problem. And inevitably, As man's rules become when they are bound on the conscience. It is not a blessing, it is a burden. So not being able to turn the light on in the morning now, they didn't turn the lights on, per se, in Jesus's day, because that would be work having to get dressed in the dark, not being able to put a fire out in your own home, only being able to walk a certain distance on the Sabbath day. having to go around the Saturday before and leave food at various points at which you could walk a certain distance and eat and establish that as your home and walk a few little further and eat and establish that as your home and. Not being able to do good on the Sabbath, if it required you to do something that might be work. It completely stripped the Sabbath of its blessing. So what is Jesus doing as he interacts with the Pharisees? And what I think Jesus is doing is one stripping away their self-righteousness, their external keeping of their own rules does not make them righteous. And he's pointing that out. That's not we're going to focus in on tonight, but is stripping away their rules and reestablishing the Sabbath is what it is. A blessing. Is what he is doing. Well, not a full treatment, let's move along. Our next point is that our Lord called the Sabbath the delight, delighting in what the Lord has given. We read in Isaiah 58. Verses that I think are very important for us as American Christians to take and digest as we think about what it means to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. had a friend in seminary who, after a period of time, became convinced that the Sabbath was for today. But he he would and I don't I love him. And so this is me getting down on him. But he would he would he would often say, I don't see a problem with, say, going fly fishing on the Sabbath or watching football on the Sabbath. And he would start listing things, he said, because I enjoy that. It's not work. It's a joy for me to do. And it's and he would start listing reasons. You know, the conversation wasn't over what you can and can't do usually. So it wasn't as if we got in a fight. But he read this one day, Isaiah 58, 13, and it changed his thinking, changed my thinking, changed his thinking. Isaiah 58, 13 reads, If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath, the delight, the holy day of the Lord, honorable and honor it. desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word. Then you will take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord is spoken. If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure and call my holy day a delight. If you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure and call the Sabbath a delight. Jesus was in the process of making the Sabbath once again what it had been, and that was a blessing and a delight. Jesus was very much about the business, and we see that in his interaction with the Pharisees, of doing that which was a blessing and a delight. Healing. Bringing the kingdom of God to bear in the lives of the people around him, making it a blessing, calling it a delight. Well. I think when we think of the Sabbath today, very often we we think of what we should or shouldn't do based on our own light, our own reasons, and I'll explain what I mean by that. How often have you heard someone say something to the effect of what I said earlier? Well, that's just not too much work, so I don't mind doing it on the Sabbath. Or. I really enjoy doing it, so it's just not something I I think is a problem on the Sabbath. Or. I really like that, so it's OK for me to do that. I've heard these sorts of arguments often. Not with regard to the Sabbath. God wants my joy to be full. True. My spouse is not making my joyful. God wants me to leave my spouse. Have you heard that sort of fuzzy logic at some point in your in your Christian life? Maybe it wasn't with regard to divorce. Maybe it was with regard to something else. The first statement is true. The second statement is very much not true. And the third statement is horrendous. We often do the same sort of thing with the Sabbath. God wants me to rest on the Sabbath. I find football football restful. Therefore, I watch football on Sunday. I'm not going to begin talking about whether you should or shouldn't watch football on Sunday today, but we're going to talk about a principle. I think we're doing the same thing. We're starting with a good principle. Then we're allowing our flesh, our heart that may or may not have been properly informed by the principles of the word of God to apply that first principle. God wants me to rest on the Sabbath. I find football restful. I watch football on Sundays. And I want us to allow Isaiah to inform us Our consciences, our hearts, our flesh is not always properly informed by the scriptures. Therefore, let me even say our desires are very often not informed by the scriptures. We need to be very careful when we allow our desires to parse and apply the word of God. We need to check if our desires are in fact informed by the word of God. Because what happens is. God wants me to be happy. My spouse isn't making me happy, so I'm leaving my spouse. God doesn't bless that logic. That decision does not become a blessing. God says he hates divorce. It causes all sorts of problems for the children, for the family, for the society. The same thing happens on the Sabbath when we allow our desires to apply. what we do. Rather than the Sabbath being a blessing and a delight, it becomes a burden. Well, hold on, if I'm doing what I like to do on Sunday. Why should it be a problem? God says, if you'll turn your foot from doing your own pleasure. And do what I'm asking you to do, even if it doesn't seem like fun, this is this is how important this is, even if you're saying to me, But I don't really enjoy going to worship twice a day, but I don't really enjoy what I've been working all week serving the sick and elderly, but I don't really enjoy. Any number of things that you're convicted from Scripture, you should be doing on the Sabbath, the problem there is not what the Lord is asking, the problem is what our heart is desiring. And the promise is that if we will apply ourselves to do what God has asked us on his day, it will be a blessing. That's a challenge then to each of us, I think. It's a challenge to myself to constantly be assessing what I do, how I spend the Lord's day. Am I being blessed or am I being burdened? And if I'm being burdened, is it because I'm doing what I want? And do I need to then Make my desires conform with the Lord's so that I might be blessed. Well. Our Lord leaves us with a sign, a supper and a shadow is our final point. Two years ago, I think the first time I had opportunity to preach on a Sunday, our Lord's Day, where we were having the Lord's Supper together. I gave a sermon where I talked about how the Passover looked back to the redemption that God secured for his people in Israel, but very much forward to Christ. That Passover lamb allowed them to cause them to remember what God had done and think of what God was going to do and how the Lord's Supper similarly points us back in remembrance to what Christ has done, to what Christ has accomplished, to what his crushed body, and poured out blood has done for us. But it also causes us to look forward. Look forward to the fact. That the curse has been broken, but not lifted. Look forward to the fact that we are not home. We're not yet with the Lord. This isn't all there is. One of the other things that Jesus was continually struggling with was misunderstandings over the nature of his kingdom. Are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Are you going to break the yoke of Roman rule? And Jesus would say, no, it's not Roman rule that I'm concerned with mostly. It is sins rule. You are not slaves to Rome. You're slaves to sin. Your biggest need is not your own autonomy. It is the forgiveness of your sins. The Sabbath, our Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day pictures for us what is yet to come, what we await for, what we look forward to, what one day we will have and what has already been secured for us. Is there something of our resting in Christ which is pictured in the Sabbath? I think absolutely. Is there something of faith that needs to be exercised when we decide, even though finances are tight, I'm not going to work on the Lord's Day? The Lord will provide. Absolutely. Is it pictured for us that we can trust in God? The way we place our trust in Jesus Christ, not in our own works. Absolutely. But that's not it. It's not all. It is still there. Its accomplishment, its fulfillment awaits us. And as we gather today on the Lord's Day, we're going to celebrate something else that awaits us, and that is the marriage feast of the lamb. Christ. Is our sacrifice. And he has accomplished salvation for us. And we enjoy that absolutely today. But not completely. Absolutely. And that it has been secured. Absolutely. And that it's coming. Absolutely. And that every sin has been washed away. The yoke of sin has been broken. We are now able through Christ to overcome our sin and live as new creations, but not completely. We don't enjoy it yet. And that's what we look forward to. So we're celebrating two signs as we sit here in just a few minutes, and that is this day of rest. That picture is for us in the presence of God, the eternity that we will spend, as well as this supper as we get to gather together and be fed by our Lord. And remember that one day we will sit at his table and be fed and be filled. By him. In that sense, we still have a shadow, What a crisp, clean shadow it is, though, a shadow of what is to come. We have in the Sabbath a shadow of what we will one day enjoy fully. But what a shadow it is, a shadow that we are so close to. We can see the defined details on the edges. There's just no question as to what it is. It's not some amorphous shadow of something that may be out there sitting. No, it is life eternal in the presence of God. It has been secured for us. The sun is so near. It's not much of a shadow, but it's still there and we're still looking forward to it. Revelation 19, nine reads, and he said to me, right, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are true words of God. Jesus celebrated the Sabbath. Because it pictured what he was securing for us, we celebrate the Sabbath. We celebrate a Sabbath rest because it pictures for us the rest that one day we will enjoy, and just a little bit do enjoy, even right now. Let's pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Lord, we coming to your presence now, looking forward to the day when we will be in your very immediate presence. Father, we look forward to the day when we will be arrayed in holiness, be arrayed in sparkling, dazzling white righteousness, and we'll be prepared for our groomsman, Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for the foretaste you've given us. the foretaste of heaven, the foretaste of rest, the foretaste that we will one day be in your presence. And Father, we ask as we gather now as your people to eat your supper, you would allow us by faith to taste the goodness of the world to come, the goodness of the day where we will spend in your glorious presence, pleasures, where we will be so overwhelmed and awed, so inspired every moment by you that we will be moved to praise, moved to worship, moved to speak to one another about your awesomeness. And so, Lord, we pray now that you would be among us, that your Holy Spirit would be working in us as we celebrate your son's death. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.