Matthew 12:1-14
Notes
Transcript
Response to the Messiah: Rejection
Response to the Messiah: Rejection
This morning as we begin Chapter 12 we are going to again see another response to the Messiah. We have seen the response of doubt, criticism, and indifference towards Jesus. This was the problem that Jesus faced as he walked throughout the region of Galilee for three and a half years. Most of the Jewish people did not accept who he was. They knew that the Scriptures had prophesied about his coming, but they did not recognized him as the Messiah.
Why?
They believed that this coming Messiah would come as King and save them from the Roman oppression. They believed that he would set up his Kingdom on earth when he first came, but he was preparing an eternal Kingdom. And they could not wrap their minds around that. Even Herod, when Jesus was born was fearful that the baby would grow up to be king, so he decided to kill every boy child 2 years and younger to try to kill this baby that would one day try to be king.
But also, not everyone will come to believe. And we know this, but it isn’t always their decision. This is one of the hardest things that I have to understand. You don’t find Jesus, he finds you. And there are some people who will never come to Jesus, not because they reject him, but because they are not chosen my him.
Last time...
Matthew 11:27 (ESV)
27 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 anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
This is why I believe that people who have once said and pray and their has never been a change in their life, there has been no repentance, there has been no following of Jesus by his Word… those are the people who will say, Lord, Lord when it is time to enter into heaven, but what did Jesus say about those people?
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
So even though Matthew has presented the evidence that he is the the Messiah, he is the promised one that the Law and the Prophets talked about…they still rejected him.
So in this 12 Chapter of Matthew we will see two more responses to the Messiah: rejection and blasphemy.
So in this 12 Chapter of Matthew we will see two more responses to the Messiah: rejection and blasphemy. . turns to action. They are not just talking bad about him, now they will begin to do something about him. Look at Matthew 12:14
14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
From here, even though we are many chapters and many sermons away from the cross… the path begin right here in Chapter 12.
So lets begin reading in Chapter 12
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
(Pray)
So, let’s look at the rejection of the Messiah.
Matthew 12:1 (ESV)
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
We will see this morning though this section that everything is centered on the Sabbath day. All of this rejection of the Messiah by the Pharisees is because he had violate their Sabbath.
The Sabbath day to the Pharisee was the most important thing to them.
For the Pharisee, everything within their traditions was focused on that one day. But notice what I said…in their traditions. Not God’s expectations....their own man made traditions.
Now the word Sabbath means “to cease,” so they would cease, or stop doing the things they would do any other on that day. It was different.
When God created the earth, it took his six days, then what did he do?
2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Now this is important…hear this… God did not give a command for his creation for a day of rest until he gave the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. And when he gave the 10 Commandments to Moses..do you remember what #4 was?
8 “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 a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
But this is what I want you to see....everyone of the 10 commandments point to morality, except this one. Keeping the Sabbath day holy was a ceremonial law. It is the one of the 10 commandments that was between God and the nation of Israel. All the other 9 continued to be moral laws even until this day. How do we know this for sure? If you go through the New Testament, all of the 10 commandments are repeated except this one. The new covenant that Jesus brings, there is no mention of the requirement of the Sabbath day. It is not mentioned as a requirement much like circumsision is not mentioned, but was realized that it was part of the Old covenant.
But during the time of Jesus, it was still a ceremonial law and Jesus and his disciples honored it. But the Pharisees took the Sabbath and added to it their own traditions. They had added so many things to the Sabbath that instead of it being a day of ceasing, a day of rest, it was a day of burdens.
Do you remember in Chapter 11 when Jesus said...
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
These were the types of burdens that the Pharisees were putting on people....the could not rest because of the traditions they were adding.
Now Jesus stated them that they should remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, don’t work and no one in your family should work. But the Pharisee them added a bunch of law to that. Things like you could not go more than 3000 feet from your house, you could lift things or put them down, but they could not be bigger than cashew fruit. You could not eat another bigger than a ground nut. If you threw something in the air with your right hand, you had to catch it with the same hand, if it was Friday Night at midnight, which was Saturday morning the Sabbath and you were eating something, you had to spit it out before it came the Sabbath day. A tailor could not carry a needle in his pocket because he may be tempted to shape something for someone on the Sabbath. A writer could not carry a pen because he might right, a student could carry his books because he might read...
And there are many more. But this wasn’t the law of God.... this was the traditions of man, the Pharisees, and they kept people burdened in trying to keep them.
So Jesus came along and paid no attention to any of this, and the Pharisees very angry, and this started the path to the cross.
So now lets look at the Incident
1. Incident (Matthew 12:1)
1. Incident (Matthew 12:1)
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
So Jesus and his disciples are moving along, and right there it shows they had moved more than 3000 feet from their home…they were walking through the grainfields. And in the eyes of the Pharisees they were violating the Sabbath. But here Jesus and the 12 are walking through the grainfields and Matthew writes that they were hungry,
Now God did something back in Deuteronomy that help the traveler as they were traveling from place to place.
25 If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.
In other words, there were not places to eat along the way, so the Lord provided in the nation of Israel and pluck the wheat to eat it. So this is what they did, THEY BEGAN TO PLUCK HEADS ID GRAIN AND TO EAT. That was lawful thing to do. They didn’t take any possessions or food when they traveled, people provided for them or they would eat from the areas like this. Jesus didn’t have a problem with it because it was part of God’s Law.
Now the Old Testament did forbid repeating on the Sabbath in Exodus 34:21,
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
but the small act of one person pulling the top of the grain and putting it into their mouth was not plowing or reaping. But the Pharisees, in their traditions has said that even that simple act was a violation of the Sabbath. But, that was not how God had envisioned for his people not sow or plow on the Sabbath.
2. Accusation (Matthew 12:2)
2. Accusation (Matthew 12:2)
2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
What is up with these Pharisees. Everywhere Jesus goes, they are there. Are they hiding behind the trees to see if he does something wrong in their traditions? What a minute! If Jesus and his disciples violated the Sabbath for being more than 3000 feet away from their home, didn’t the Pharisees do the same?
Look what they said..... YOUR DISCIPLES ARE DOING WHAT IS NOT LAWFUL TO DO ON THE SABBATH.
They had buried God’s law so deep underneath their own traditions that they were not even mindful of how God wanted them to live. They were making their own rules, keeping people burdened.
These disciples had nothing, they didn’t violate the heart of God.
Some people think that Christianity is too much. That God requires too much or he has two many rules to keep. Compared to the Pharisees and Judaism.... his burden is light.
SO they accused the Lord of their own made up tradition and distorted the very reason that God created the Sabbath day.
3. Teaching (Matthew 12:3-7)
3. Teaching (Matthew 12:3-7)
Listen to the Lord’s answer..
Matthew 12:3..... Have you not read
Matthew 12:5… or have you not read
Matthew 12:5… if you would have known
I think Jesus is being a little sarcastic with them. These Pharisees knew the Law, they could probably repeat it without looking at it.
3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
He mentions 3 biblical texts to show the true meaning of the Sabbath.
Sabbath Law was never meant to restrict deeds of necessity (Matt 12:3-4)
Sabbath Law was never meant to restrict service to God (Matt 12:5)
Sabbath Law was never meant to restrict acts of mercy (Matt 12:7)
The Sabbath was to bring rest, not hardship, and the Sabbath was to reflect what the other 9 commandments reflected. Love towards God and our fellow man.
It was all about Love to God and Man.
Matthew 22:37–40 (ESV)
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
That was the Spirit of the Law....love to God and man.
Paul says in
Romans 13:10 (ESV)
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
But the Pharisees could not see that.
Look back at those three biblical texts...
Sabbath Law was never meant to restrict deeds of necessity (Matt 12:3-4)
*David
*On the Run from Saul
*Ate the bread in the temple that was reserved for the priest (Lev. 24:5-9) (show bread-six large loaves, bread of presence, sacred)
*Why did God allow this? Because God never invented a law to overshadow human need. And Tradition and ceremony does not come before need.
Sabbath Law was never meant to restrict service to God (Matt 12:5)
*All the priest violated the Sabbath…every Sabbath. How? They worked. They lite fires which they were not supposed to do, the sacrificed, killed animals, again violating the Sabbath.
But this is something that they had to do… In Leviticus and Numbers Aaron and his sons who do these things…prepare the burnt offering which violated the traditional law of the Pharisees.
It was never God’s intention to restrict service to God on the Sabbath.
----------Look at what he says here in verse 6....he blows them away...
6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
The temple was the central place of worship. The very presence of the Lord dwelled there. Jesus looked at them and said…listen, something greater than the temple is here. Now the Pharisees had a problem with Jesus, we know that, but when he said that…that blew their mind. Jesus was saying that I am the temple. I am the presence of God, right here, right now. This was a claim of his deity.....He was God in the flesh.
3. Sabbath Law was never meant to restrict acts of mercy (Matt 12:7)
If you knew what God really wanted, you would have not condemned these disciples. This ceremonial Sabbath system was only a shadow…what God really wants is a merciful heart. And God is merciful, and if his people hunger he wants them to be fed.
Some people think that there are too many rules in Christianity, it’s not true. There are standards, that are attainable though the power of the Holy Spirit… but still those standards do not stop us from meeting our needs, serving him, showing mercy, kindness… thats what God wants.
You see God sets aside his laws sometimes to show mercy. It’s true. If you don’t believe that, ask yourself why you are not dead.... you have sinned.
But this is the key…only God can set aside his standard, not you or me.
God wants an obedient heart, and the Pharisees did not have that. Don’t you think that if there was only one day to do good for someone or only one day for a need to be met, t would be the Sabbath? Yeah, what better day. To serve the Lord. Here were the disciples going along on their way to serve the Lord.
Here is the whole point.... They accused Jesus, but he stood his ground and accused them of their hard hearts who didn’t even know the heart of God. THEY were the violaters of the Sabbath for not meeting needs and not giving acts of mercy.
Then Jesus boldly proclaims...
8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
What is he saying? He is looking them straight in the eye and saying -I built it and I will tell you would you should act on that day-
He is either a blasphemer or he is God. He wrote it, he interpreted it, and he fulfilled it. That is why we do not have the Sabbath anymore.
10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
What does that mean? The Sabbath was a picture, a shadow of rest. But the Pharisees invented the Sabbath to be something entirely different. Because if the Sabbath is what the Pharisees intended it to be with all of their rules and traditions....who wants that? There is no rest!
But Jesus fulfilled that rest. That’s why the New Testament says nothing about keeping the Sabbath. Romans 14 says that if you want to keep it, then keep it, but if you don’t, don’t.
Jesus fulfilled it. Now, as Christians, we don’t look to the 7th day anymore we look to the first day of the week? Why? Because of the Resurrection.
He rose on the first day of the week.
The Disciples meet together one the first day of the week (Acts 2:1)
They meet together regularly breaking bread on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7)
They were to collect their offerings when they came together on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:1)
Why? Because that was the day of celebration…Resurrection Day… its the new covenant.
He closes with an
4. Explanation (Matthew 12:9-13)
4. Explanation (Matthew 12:9-13)
9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 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. 11 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? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other.
I love this! Jesus went from teaching them about how they were not looking at the Sabbath the right way, straight into the synagogue to continue to confront them. He didn’t back down. He knew they needed more. He new they needed a closer explanation. And because He is God, he knew they would try to catch him so they asked, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath.
Now one thing I want you to see here, is that they had no concern with this man. They didn’t care about the man. They didn’t care if he was healed or not, they had a purpose, to try to catch Jesus. You see because a withered hand was not life and death. So to heal a man, in their traditional laws thoughts was not a task that could be performed on the Sabbath. But also they were just using this man for their own arguments, they didn’t care about him.... look what it says in verse 10…so that they may accuse him. They didn’t care about whether this man was made whole or not.
But Jesus turns their question around and instead of answering yes or no, he ask of question of them. Look what he says in verse 11.
11 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?
So the question is, if one of your sheep were to fall into a pit on the Sabbath, would you not pick it out? Would you not find a way to save your sheep? Some how, you would find a way to make sure your sheep did not die! Then he says something that leaves them speechless....
12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Now look at this…Jesus makes a statement and even asks a question of them. So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” But they can’t answer it. Because if they say yes, it is lawful to do good, then they go against all of the accusations they have brought against him. If the say no it is not lawful to do good… then hey would be looked at as evil. So what do they say?
Nothing. They can’t answer.
Luke records that Luke 6:11 “11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.”
Mark writes that Mark 3:5 “5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”
They didn’t care if the man was healed, they simply wanted to stick with their traditions.
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other.
If there was anything to do on the Sabbath, don’t you think it would be to do good? Yes. So to have the ability to do good and not to do good is evil.
So we go from the Incident to the Accusation to the Teaching to Explanation to the Revolt.
5. Revolt (Matthew 12:14)
5. Revolt (Matthew 12:14)
14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
Why? Because they were good and they were evil. Jesus connected the Sabbath with the heart of God. Goodness, meekness, mercy, kindness. And that is the purpose of it all. He came so that we might enter into a relationship with God in which he pours out to us grace and mercy and kindness and peace. They had taken a day that was holy and turned it into a burdensome time that would keep people down. But Jesus had come to life man up.
Jesus’ lesson is very clear, he broke a man made traditional law to serve God. To lift him up. To put the focus on him, not on man. That is the heart of God. Because God wants mercy to be shown, not ritual. The only function that ceremony or ritual has is an example of right attitude. But when ritual takes place over mercy, and kindness and look, it looses the original purpose it was intended for.
A couple of lessons to take away. First, if you are living a life thinking that doing things is what will take you to heaven, then you are truly not seeing the heart of God. Don’t be like the Pharisees that were so bound up in traditions that they didn’t see the very heart of God and his son Jesus Christ. Yes, a Christian should want to worship him with other Christians (making tie for Church), yes a Christian should want to draw close to God (time in prayer in and inn his Word), but ultimately a Christian is a Christian because they have recognized their need for a Savior. A Savior that gave his life for them asking nothing more than to follow him. God wants mercy not sacrifice. But here is the thing… when we give him mercy and love, we will sacrifice everything we have to him.
Second, if you are a believer, a true follower of Christ, continue to look for God mercy, love, and kindness. You will meet people in your life that will tell you “this is what it means to be a Christian, or this is the Bible you should have, or this is what you should put on your head before you go to church. Listen of you only get two things right in this life you live, and those are that you Loved God and loved people, then in the end, God will bring you into heaven. Because if your life refelcts those two things, the Bible tells us then even thing else in your life will fall into place.