Jesus vs. Religion Pt 1

Let's see. Yes, yes, yes. Good morning. Would you all stand? We want to welcome all of you this morning to Calvary Chapel and also those who are watching online with us. You bow your heads and join me in prayer, please. Father, we thank you for this opportunity, another Sunday that we can come as a group to worship you in song and study your word, Lord. I want to lift up this service, Lord,

as the youngsters are down there at the end of the hall. Bless them. Give them listening ears to receive what you have for them. We ask that you bless the teachers as they give out your word to them, Lord. Give them wisdom. Strengthen them, each one. We want to lift up those in the nursery looking after those little ones that you had blessed them to. And that you just cause those little

ones to just feel comfortable and satisfied, Lord. Right where they are and the ushers as they, as they usher, Lord, give them wisdom. Bless them. Then as we're gathered here this morning, Lord, we come to worship you in song and study your word. Bless our service. Just anoint it. Fill us afresh this morning, Lord. And we just give you praise. Thank you, Lord. I think I said stand. Yes.

I searched the world, never enough. You came along.

Father, we thank you for this opportunity to worship you this morning here together, Lord. We have only how you direct us, how you guide us, how you correct us when we need it. Reprove us, encourage us, Lord. We've been sanctified in that process of salvation. Live it out. Keep our heads up for our redemption draws. Ryan comes up, Lord, to teach your word, anointed by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring it forth.

You would have it. And then you, that you would touch hearts, that our hearts will be open, Lord.

Things take root. We just give you all the thanks in Jesus' name. Have some fellowship, guys.

Good morning. If you would start to locate your seat, grab your bulletins. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Glad you could be with us this morning. I'm proud of you all for making it here because it's Time Change Sunday, which is the hardest Sunday of the year because even I'm tired. So I'll do the best. I can't not to fall asleep up here. And other than that, we'll survive. On the left-hand side of your bulletin, all the things are happening this week as usual, including the fact that tonight is the Marriage and Family Study.

So check that out. Also in the center section of your bulletin, some things to pay attention to. Again, the little QR code is there for KidCheck. We're working on getting the right desks to have all that set up. So we're in the process of that. The next thing is that the Family Life Services Banquet is coming up April 2nd. And Calvary always purchases two tables for that.

And so if you are interested in coming, I have tickets for those that would be interested. I think I've got nine tickets left. So if you would like some of those, come see me. And if you don't know what Family Life Services is, it's a crisis pregnancy center for those young ladies that find themselves in the position of having to make a decision about what to do with their unborn baby.

Man, Family Life Services comes in, and they counsel them in a, in a godly way to, to know what to do there. A lot of, a lot of young lives have been saved because of the ministry of Family Life Services. So, so we love to support them and love to see what God's doing with them. So if you're interested in that, come talk to me afterwards, and I will write your name down on a very fancy piece of paper in my office to let you know that you have a ticket.

There's also a fellowship event. It was going to be on April the 2nd, but with the FLS Banquet being that day, they decided to move it to April the 9th. I should have some more details on that, hopefully, next week. So, those are the things that are going on, and then I have two other announcements that I think people are going to make. I'm looking to see if those people are in this room, and they're not.

Okay, there she is. We're playing the video first. Okay, the first one is for Feed the Need. They're going to play the video, and then I think Lisa's going to come up and talk.

Feed the Need is an extraordinary event, both in the event itself for your child and as a major fundraiser for your school. From the event standpoint, Feed the Need is a service-based mission experience where students can learn about the Bible, and they can learn about the Bible, and they can learn about the Bible. Students will pack 10,000 meals for hungry children and families. Of these 10,000 meals that are packed, typically 1,500 meals are distributed to hungry families in your community, and 8,500 meals are shipped to Christian orphanages and small, high-poverty schools in one of five third-world countries, and these include Haiti, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Kenya.

The meals your students send overseas will be met at the destination port by pastors and Christian workers, who will directly distribute the meals to the children and families. They will be sent to the destination port by pastors and Christian workers, who will directly distribute the meals to the children and families. and distribute the food among multiple sites in those countries. I'm so glad the sound worked, because last service it didn't.

And I was trying to say all of that, and I think I missed a few things, so this is good. We are super blessed at Arc City Christian Academy. Really quick, my name is Lisa Holland, and I do attend this church. I've attended it for a long time, but I'm always in that booth back there. I had some students say, I don't go to your church, and I said, yeah, I see you every week.

So anyway, but we... We are blessed by Calvary Chapel. I just have to say that Arc City Christian Academy is a ministry that Calvary Chapel regularly supports. And we couldn't do it without you. We are so thankful for this fellowship. You support us financially and through prayer, and you partner with us in everything that we do, and I just, I appreciate that.

Ryan is our high school Bible teacher, so those kids are blessed. It was fun to watch the video at Chapel, because you could see the little kids, you know, they're so into it, and then the big kids are so cool, because they can't, you know, smile and sing, and that's what he does with every day, you know, so that's awesome. But, so Feed the Need, we're excited. This year, our meals, we're packaging 10,000 meals to be sent to Haiti in our kickoff.

We were finding out that Haiti is one of the only places where the meals are not being hijacked or pirated, so those meals will go there. 1,500 meals will stay in the Cali County area. We typically use those... We'll send those with Manna Ministries. They know where to plug those in and the families that are in need in the area. So, what can you do? Well, the biggest thing that we need is prayer.

Our goal, obviously, is to raise $60,000. That's great. It helps to feed that need. It also helps our little Christian school. We do run with a decent-sized tuition gap, but the Lord always is faithful and brings that in. We try to keep Christian education at a cost that our families can afford. So, our staff, we do work at a ministry. We do work at a ministry, right?

But it's because we love the kids and we have that heart for education, for Christian education. So, then we just rely on the Lord to bring in that need. And so, the person that does not like fundraisers gets to help with fundraisers, which is so much fun. God has a sense of humor. I do have quite a few ACCA families in here. So, if you are... You don't even have...

I won't make you stand. But if you are an ACCA family, would you kind of... If you are an ACCA family, would you kind of... If you are an ACCA family, would you kind of raise your hand? So, Bryce, would you raise your hand? So, if you look around, you see some of these... Some of them are like... I'm trying to help your kids so it doesn't just go to the teacher fund.

So, if you donate to me, then I will put your donations, your financial donations in the teacher fund. But if you donate to an ACCA family, then that kid, it will go into their account. So, if you know an ACCA family and want to specify to make a donation to that ACCA family, then those little kids get to a chapel, go up, and they get to pop a balloon or whatever. And then they win, like, lunch with the principal.

So, I get... I mean, that's fun. I get to do that. So, please donate to the kids because I like having lunch with the kids. It's great. Or different things. They don't have to wear a uniform or whatever. So, if you would first prayerfully lift up this fundraiser ministry opportunity. But, too, if you feel the need to, if you feel led to donate, you can make a donation.

I can just put it right here. Or you can see me. And I can tell you how to make one online. Or you can see one of the ACCA family members. And they can also help you. Thank you guys very much. And we just appreciate you coming alongside with us. Thanks. Okay. And then, Sandra, if you would come up.

It's Announcement Sunday. I am Sandra Davis. I help with the children's ministry. And that is why I'm here today. Is... Um... As you have seen, our church has grown. Lots of little people, which we love. But we need some help. Right now, we have three classrooms plus a smaller second two- and three-year-old classroom. It's kind of an extension of the nursery.

But we have three teachers at every level. And so, basically, we teach every three months. If you pray about and feel so led to the church, you can come up. If you feel so led, we'd love to have you as part of the teaching ministry. If you do not feel so led, but want to be part of children's ministry as crowd control, we would love that. Because our classrooms are getting pretty large.

And having 12 to 15, you know, three, four, and five-year-olds is a handful. And so, just to help with the, you know, keeping kids quiet and focused. And bathroom runs and those kinds of things. That would be greatly appreciated. It's... I have a sign-up to... If you want to do that. It says parents, but we will take... Grandparents, we will take people just that love kids.

And we... It's just part of this raising up the next generation. And we love to be a part of that. And it's what it's about. And then the second thing is... I finally... Well, we have the t-shirts that we had made. The Matthew t-shirts. If you ordered them, it was actually before Christmas, I think. We have them here. I'll be in the hall after service. I did a few extras.

And so, if you come by and you didn't order one and you'd like one. If you would like one, we can always do... You know, and I get enough people. We can always do a second order or something. So, thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. Okay. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our unison reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 133.

Psalm 133. We'll be looking at the New American Standard. So, we all sound the same. And then after we're done, you can go back to using your Bible. And as you are turning to Psalm 133, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. If you don't have a copy of the New American Standard, there should be one in a row around you. If there's not, it's time to make a friend.

So, Psalm 133. And again, my buddy's not with me today. So, we will all be reading together in unison. Psalm 133. A Song of Ascents of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, coming down upon the mountains of Zion.

For there the Lord commanded blessing, life forever. Father, we do thank you for the refreshment of gathering together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord, gathering as your body. So, Lord, I pray that as we do so today, that our fellowship would be sweet. I thank you for our fellowship. I thank you for our time in praise. And, Lord, as we now continue our time of worship by studying your word,

I just ask that you would minister to us through the power of your Holy Spirit. And we just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12.

Matthew, chapter 12.

So, before I get into the study, I had a great conference last week down in Arizona. The Bible. The Bible. The Bible. The Bible. The theme of the conference was prophecy, and we learned a lot of things. And the things that really stuck out to me the most were them just talking about the signs of the times that we're living in, that based upon what it says in Scripture, the whole, the stage is being set for what the Lord wants to do in the next section of time as he sees it.

Politically, the stage is set. Economically, the stage is being set. Culturally, morally. Everything. Everything is coming into play as far as Scripture is concerned and as far as prophecy is concerned. And really, on the prophetic timeline, since the nation of Israel came back together, there's nothing we're waiting for other than Jesus deciding to take us home.

Well, other than the last Gentile being saved. Because until the times of the Gentiles are complete, blindness will continue to be in part upon the nation of Israel. But then once the church is gone, God will once again deal with the nation of Israel. And so, that's all we're waiting for. But the thing I love the most... The thing I love the most about the conference is that in all of that, they said,

but we can give you all of the information in the world, but if it doesn't translate into your daily life, if it does not make you live an expectant life, constantly expecting the return of your Savior, then it doesn't do you any good. If it doesn't point you to Jesus and bring you closer in your walk with him, all the prophetic things in the world we talk about, they're just information that it's fun to know. My favorite quote came from a guy named Gary Hamrick. He said, A lack of holy living is a lack of expectant living.

And so, I just think that that's what God is calling us to be as he's calling us to be ready and to live lives that are ready no matter what to meet our Savior every day. So, those are the things that we learned at the conference and it was wonderful. For the most part, the trip down was fairly uneventful. The trip there and back, we drove. There was one moment on the way down when we were going through Oklahoma City

that Rick Hawkins followed us in his car behind and he had a flat tire. He ended up having to get all new tires on his car. But I feel confident that whoever put new tires on his car previously worked for NASCAR because it was the fastest I've ever seen four brand new tires get put on a car. It was a sight to behold. And so, they actually raised his car up.

All four tires came off at the same time. All four went back on at the same time. We were impressed. So, thank you, Fast Mechanics. Okay. Now, as we move into chapter 12, of the book of Matthew, we're looking at Jesus as he's dealing with the religious leaders. Jesus, up to this point in time, has been dealing with a certain amount of rejection from the religious community.

We saw that one of the times that he cast out a demon, they said, oh, he casts out demons by the power of demons. And we see some of the rejection of Jesus at that point in time. We know that when Jesus called Matthew the tax collector, Jesus then went out to dinner or went over to Matthew's house and ate with a bunch of, as it says, tax collectors. And the religious leaders were like, what is he doing eating with all those sinners?

And, of course, Jesus said, well, I didn't come for those who think they're well. I came for those who know that they're sick, who know that they need a physician. And so, there was a certain amount of rejection of Jesus as far as the religious leaders were concerned at that point in time. But as we move into chapter 12, we see the ultimate rejection of Jesus.

As a matter of fact, it will turn from you're just not that popular with us to let's see if we can figure out how to kill you sort of a moment. Okay. This entire chapter, which will take us more than one week to get through, I've entitled it Jesus versus religion. And, of course, this is part one. And so, as we move into this section, we pick up in chapter 12, verse 1, and it says this.

At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath. But he said to them, have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?

But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you have known what this means, I desire compassion and not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. Now, the first two incidents of this chapter is what we're going to talk about today, and they both surround the aspect of the Sabbath day.

And so, as Jesus is facing this rejection by religion, it's going to be because he violates their rules about the Sabbath, and we'll talk about that in just a minute. So, this first scene that we see, or this first story that we see, has a scene that's set up for us, right? It says, At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields. It was on the Sabbath, and the disciples became hungry and began to pluck the heads of grain and eat.

Now, if you and I were to begin walking through a field, it would look a little bit strange, would it not? Because you would have to leave town, and you would have to go out into the country, and you would have to be some random guy walking through a field, picking up heads of grain or plucking the heads of grain. It would look kind of strange for us. But in this point in time, there were actually paths that were cut through the grain fields.

They were paths that made it easier for them to get from town to town or from place to place because it was such an agricultural society. So, paint this picture, if you will. Jesus and his disciples are probably on the way to the synagogue to celebrate the Passover. And as they're on their way to the synagogue to celebrate the Passover, the first detail that we take note of is that it's on the Sabbath day.

Now, again, I'll talk about why that's important in just a moment, and I'll explain a little bit more about the Sabbath in just a moment. Just take note of the fact that that's an important detail. But the next thing that we take note of about these disciples is that they are very, perhaps you saw the word, they are very hungry. Now, it's not like when I get hungry, okay?

So, I took this trip down to Arizona, and we drove, and so I would be driving along, and I would think, oh, I'm hungry, I need, like, snacks and stuff. I need, like, cookies, or I need, like, brownies, or you name it. I bought, when we were waiting for Rick to get his tires changed, there was a drug dealer there. She was selling Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies.

And so... And so I was like, yes, I need a box of those. So every now and then, I'd be like, ooh, Girl Scout cookies. And Lewis kept laughing at me because I'd be like, I said it's serving size, half a sleeve, don't mock me. Anyway, like, that's what I think of when I get hungry, because I'm not really that hungry. I'm just bored. But these guys were living with Jesus.

They were working with Jesus. And do you remember what it said about Jesus when somebody said, hey, I want to come stay where you are? And Jesus goes, well, that's a great idea, except I don't have a place to stay because the birds have nests, the foxes have dens, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. You see, Jesus worked sunup to sundown, and he didn't have a sweet fridge and pantry where he could just get all of his snacks from.

So when it says that these disciples were hungry, I believe that the physical need was real, that they were truly hungry. And so it's on the Sabbath day, walking through the grain field, and so they're hungry. And so what they would do is they would reach out, grab hold of one of the ends of the stalk of grain, and perhaps you've done this before if you're out in the country with a friend, and you pull some of it out, and they rub the grain together in their hands, which removes all the... the chaff on the outside, and they toss the grain in their mouth, and they start to eat.

Those of us in Kansas do that with wheat, and it turns into like a gum, right? Well, same idea here that's given with this. And so they're trying to satiate their hunger a little bit by helping themselves to a little bit of grain. Well, as they're doing that, the Pharisees happen to be watching. Notice what it says in verse 2. But when the Pharisees saw this,

they said to him, Look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do, on the Sabbath. Now, if you don't know anything about the Sabbath, and you don't know anything about Scripture, probably what you think that they're doing wrong is stealing somebody else's grain, right? How dare you go through somebody else's field and steal from them by taking their grain? But that's not the problem.

As a matter of fact, if you looked at Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 25, you don't need to go there. You might just reference it to the side margin. There was actually an exception in the law that if you were walking through the field of another, this is an exception that was given. You could reach out, and if you could collect it with your hand, you could eat it to satisfy the hunger of the traveler.

Now, the moment that you broke out a sickle and start harvesting their field, that's when it becomes theft. So, if the Pharisees are not upset with them about the fact that they're stealing someone else's grain, then what are they saying is unlawful for them to do on the Sabbath? Well, according to the Pharisees, the fact that they were doing this actually broke four rules. Number one, they had harvested.

Number two, they had winnowed. Number three, they had threshed. And number four, they had prepared food because they harvested, they winnowed, they threshed, prepared food, and ate it. Now, we hear that and we go, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. To think that they did all of that. Listen, lawyers are good, right? They can come up with a lot of really good things

that people do wrong. And so, that's exactly what takes place here. These guys say, but you broke the Sabbath law. Now, before I get into what the Sabbath law actually is, I want to point something out. Never at any point in time did Jesus ever break any of God's laws. The laws Jesus broke were man's laws that they had come up with to add to God's laws. Now, as Western culture Christians,

for the most part, we don't know very much about the Sabbath day. Nor has it ever been anything that most of us have probably followed. So, I thought this would be a wonderful time to give just a little bit of a history, a little bit of a background on the Sabbath day. So, the first thing I want to talk about is, is the law of the Sabbath. The law of the Sabbath,

or the Sabbath day itself, was actually first mentioned in Genesis chapter 2, verse 2. And it was mentioned like this. It was the seventh day of creation, and it said that on the seventh day, God rested from all of his work. Interestingly enough, that word rested in the Hebrew is the Hebrew word sabbat, or we might translate it as Sabbath. The word literally means to cease.

God rested or ceased from his working. And it says that God sanctified the seventh day and made it holy. And so, there was something that was always really important about that seventh day because on that seventh day, God ceased from all of his working of creation. Well, if you move on into Scripture, you come to the book of Exodus, and you come to Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11.

And in Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11, you're right in the middle of what would be called the Ten Commandments. God's law that was given to the nation of Israel. One of those laws that was given to the nation of Israel is remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. This is the next mention of the Sabbath day in Scripture. It says, And then, of course,

if you move on into the Old Testament, you come to Leviticus where it's explained a little bit more. You come to Deuteronomy where it's explained a little bit more. And we see how much the children of Israel struggled with this law of the Sabbath throughout Scripture. Now, the question comes to mind, what is the point of this Sabbath law? Because, again, for those of us

as Western culture Christians that have never followed this law, we don't always understand what the point of it was. Well, when I think of the Sabbath day, and as I have prayed and thought through this, I've come up with four reasons why God gave this law of the Sabbath. The first reason why God gave this law of the Sabbath is because it gave a structure for time. Throughout the years, everybody's time has always been based on a seven-day work week.

There was one moment in history where they tried to get away from a seven-day week where there was six days of work and one day of rest. And that was during the French Revolution because they tried to cast off everything that had to do with the church. And so, if I remember correctly, it was a nine-day work week that they tried. It might have been a ten-day work week, but nobody could keep up with it because they all became too exhausted and for a very short time they went with that and then immediately had to go back to the structure of time, which is six days of work and one day of rest.

So, it's given to us as a structure of time. But the second reason that it's given to us is it's given to man for physical rest. You see, God knew the work that they were doing. God knew the work that they were going to have to do and that their bodies needed to take a day off. That they needed a day where all they did was lay around and do nothing. Was just simply relax.

Allow their bodies to recover. Allow their minds to recover. Allow their souls to recover from everything that they had to do. And may I say, while we as New Testament believers are not under the law of the Sabbath, I think there's something really, really important about taking a day off every week. If you're anything like me, you're not very good at it. Matter of fact,

when you do take that day off, you maybe even feel guilty about it a little bit. Like, oh, I should really be doing and I could make an entire list of things that I should be doing. And sometimes God's like, yeah, but the best thing you could do right now is take a nap, right? Because that's actually a healthy thing for us to do. So he gave it to us, gave it to the nation of Israel

as a day for physical rest. But not only that, number three, he gave it to man as a day to focus on the Lord. A day where they could really take time to reflect on the goodness of God, reflect on the promises of God, and just, just give all of their focus to their relationship with the Lord. Because you know as well as I do, when you show up on a Sunday morning, at least I feel this way, I love Sunday.

Sunday's a great day. And I get my focus back on Jesus. I get my focus back on the Lord. But we all know that after Sunday comes what? Monday, right? And Monday you're still going, man, that was still good yesterday. Still kind of living off that, how amazing that was. But then Friday comes. And while you're really excited about the fact that it's Friday, you're like,

whoa, I need some Jesus again. Well, then Sunday comes and you get your Jesus time again, right? Well, God gives us that one day. God gave them that one day so they could take a day and just completely and totally focus on the things of the Lord. But then the fourth reason, I think this one's really, really important. The fourth reason why God gave them the Sabbath day

is because it was a foreshadowing of the fulfillment of rest that Christ would bring. Remember what we said in Genesis chapter two, verse two? It said that on the seventh day, God rested from all of his work of creation. He ceased from all of his work of creation. Well, you know, it's kind of an interesting New Testament parallel to that. Do you remember Jesus was crucified?

He rose again, hung out on the earth for about 40 days, and then he ascended into heaven. What does it say Jesus did once he ascended into heaven? It says that he sat down at the right hand of the Father. Why? Because he had ceased from all of his work of redemption. Therefore, you and I now no longer fulfill the Sabbath day by making sure that we take one day a week

to do no work, although I think physically that's a healthy thing for us to do. Spiritually speaking, our Sabbath rest is not found in a day. Our Sabbath rest is found in a Savior. Because you and I could never work hard enough, could never do enough, could never be good enough, could never work long enough, could never satisfy the righteous requirement that God had for us, and so Jesus did it for us.

And when he sacrificed, he sacrificed his body on that cross, and he cried out, it is finished. That's exactly what it meant because the payment was made in full. And we know that the payment was made in full because on the third day, God raised him from the dead. Why is that important? Because it guaranteed that he is everything he said he is. It guaranteed that the sacrifice

was accepted by God. And so now when you come to Jesus, which by the way, remember what it said at the end of Matthew chapter 11? Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. And what's he promised to give you? I promise to give you rest. Why? Because he is our Sabbath rest. Why did God give the Sabbath day? And why did it mean so much to him? Because it was the perfect picture

of what was to come. Do you realize that in those 10 commandments, only nine of them are confirmed for us in the New Testament. I heard somebody say one time, we need to throw out the 10 commandments. We're not under the old covenant. Well, then you better throw out most of the New Testament because nine of the 10 commandments are confirmed in the New Testament

as things that we need to do. That we should continue to obey as principles that we should continue to live by. The only one that's not given to us as one that we must continue to live by in the New Testament is the Sabbath day. Why? Because it was fulfilled for us in Christ. He is our rest. He is our ultimate Sabbath day. Well, so what does that mean for us

as New Testament believers? What is our role where the Sabbath is concerned? Well, we no longer need to maintain a day. We no longer need to maintain a day. We no longer need to take Saturday and make that our day of rest. We no longer need to make Saturday our day of worship. Can you worship the Lord on Saturday? Absolutely. I think you should worship the Lord

seven days a week. But that no longer has to be the day that we do that. And so the second question arises, so then why does the church meet on Sunday? If God was so intent on the Sabbath day for the Old Testament, why does the New Testament church meet on Sundays? Well, because remember, if you will, when Jesus was crucified, it says that, on the first day of the week,

the lady showed up at the tomb. And what did they find on that first day of the week when they showed up at the tomb? They found that the tomb was empty, meaning that what happened to Jesus on the first day of the week? He rose from the dead. Do you realize that according to the Gospel of John, the next two consecutive Sundays, the next two consecutive first days

of the week, or as they are often called in the New Testament, the Lord's Day, those next two, those next two Sundays, Jesus showed up and met with his disciples. Then when you move into the book of Acts, do you know what happens in the book of Acts? We're told that when the church met on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, and then you move into the book of 1 Corinthians, and what do you find? Paul gave instructions on giving, and do you remember what those instructions on giving were?

When you meet on the first day of the week, that's when you meet on the first day of the week. That's when you need to follow these instructions on giving. Why do we as a New Testament church meet on a Sunday instead of a Saturday? Because according to what it tells us in the book of Colossians, Sabbath days and all of those other things, they were a shadow.

Jesus is the substance. Saturday, the Sabbath day, was a shadow of the rest that was to come. Sunday, the day that Jesus rose again, that's the substance. Why do we meet on Sunday? Because every Sunday, I don't know if you realize this, but every Sunday is Resurrection Day. Every Sunday is Easter. Every Sunday we celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.

So when we gather here this morning, we didn't just gather because it's Sunday and that's what we do. We didn't just gather because it's the right thing to do. We gather to celebrate the fact that we serve a Jesus who is alive and alive forevermore to save. And so we are celebrating Resurrection Day today. Ryan, I thought that was in April. It's every Sunday, right?

And so that's who we are now as New Testament believers. That's how we view the Sabbath day. But with that background, we now come to the way that the, unfortunately, the Sabbath day was perverted. Because here's what the Pharisees and the religious leaders did in Jesus' day. They began adding laws to the Sabbath day. They began making it very burdensome. They began adding rule after rule

and restriction after restriction until what God had intended to be a day of rest and focus on the Lord turned into a day that was a burden and a focus on whether or not you were doing it right. They had added man's rules to God's law. And so, with that as a backdrop, we come now to this accusation. Verse 2, when the Pharisees saw this, they said, look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

Look, he said, they're breaking our law. Actually, they said they're breaking God's law. But what they were really doing was breaking their law. So, Jesus begins to respond. He responds by giving three examples. The first one is the example of David in the showbread. Notice what it says. Verse 3, but he said to them, have you not read what David did when he became hungry,

he and his companions, how he entered the house of God and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone. So, the first example he gives is David in the showbread, which comes out of 1 Samuel chapter 21. We're not going to go there and read it because for time's sake, I just want to reference it. Wouldn't be a bad idea in the margin of your Bible to write 1 Samuel 21 because that's where this story comes from.

But if we were to go back and look at that, we would know that David was on the run from Saul. David was the rightfully anointed king because Saul had been disqualified through his sin. But Saul didn't like David and Saul was still around. And so, Saul was pursuing David to kill him. Well, David shows up where the tabernacle is and he and what's known as his mighty men,

the guys that followed him, they come up and they say, hey, we're really, really hungry. Sound familiar? We're really hungry. Do you have anything here to eat? And the priest said, all I have is the bread of the presence or the showbread. You see, within the tabernacle, there was always to be 12 loaves of bread that sat before the Lord and they were only to be eaten

by the priests and they were to be replaced every week with fresh bread. And the priest said, all I have is the showbread and it's really not lawful for you guys to eat but you know what? I'm going to show mercy. You guys can have this bread. And so, he gave it to David to eat. Now, this is an example of breaking a ceremonial law because man's need came above

the ceremonial law. You see, when God gave the law, he did not give the law in order to be a burden to man. He gave the law in order to be a help to man. And he said, David proves this in this story out of 1 Samuel chapter 21. Now, if you were a good Jewish Pharisee at this point in time, as soon as the name David was mentioned, it immediately brought about respect in your mind

because according to the nation of Israel, David was the greatest king that ever lived. The Messiah would sit on the throne of David. And so, he just said, the most awesome king that you guys hold up as your standard, even he broke a ceremonial law in order to fulfill physical need. So, he moves on from there to give a second example. And he says, verse 5, He said,

not only that, but on a weekly basis, the priestly line, they break the Sabbath. Why? Because the Sabbath is the day when they're offering all of the sacrifices. And yet, they're still innocent. And then he looks at them and says something really interesting. He says, but I tell you, there is one greater than the temple standing right in front of you. Now, again,

that might not mean much to us, but to them that meant everything. Because the fact that the temple was, the fact that the temple was still standing was the nation of Israel's greatest hope. Now, they said, as long as the temple is here, the nation is still here. Because it's what all of their hope and all of their joy was founded in the fact that they had the temple.

He said, but I tell you this, there's one greater than the temple that's here. Because if you study the book of Leviticus, you understand that everything in the tabernacle, which would have been translated into the temple, all of it points to Jesus. All of it finds its fulfillment in Jesus. Well, it goes on from there to give one more example, and it's an example from the word of the prophet.

He says in verse seven, but if you had known what this means, I desire compassion and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. As he gives this word of Hosea, he says, you don't understand the truth of the Old Testament. You don't understand the truth of scripture. You don't understand the heart of God. Because if you really understand that I desire compassion and not sacrifice,

or perhaps some of your translations, and I prefer this word, maybe even a little bit more, he says, I prefer mercy and not sacrifice, then you would understand that what you're doing is wrong. Why? Because they had no care for man's personal needs. They only cared about the rules that had to be kept. And then Jesus sort of sends it home with this. He says,

the son of man, verse eight, is the Lord of the Sabbath. He says, the son of man is the Lord of the Sabbath. Why is he able to say that? Because he is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. You see, in all of these things, and if I was to sum up all three of those things with Jesus' argument, if I could sum it all up in one sentence, it would be this. They forgot about Jesus.

They forgot about Jesus. They forgot that there was a Messiah that would come and ultimately fulfill all of those things. The Sabbath was not an end in and of itself. Keeping that law was not the point. Making sure you kept that law was not the goal, which, by the way, they did keep the law, just not man's interpretation of the law. Keeping that law was not the point.

That law was always there to point to one that would be greater that would come, and the greater that would come is Jesus. But they had missed Jesus. Because that's what was wrong with the religious community at that point in time, which is why they were willing, as a religion, to reject Jesus. But you know what I'm a little bit concerned about right now? Is that the same thing is taking place in the church today.

I listened to a podcast on the way down to Arizona. It was a podcast series about the fall of a megachurch. And as they went through all of the things that took place in the fall of this megachurch, it's kind of an interesting thing to pay attention to, because they go through and they talk about lots of other megachurches. Calvary Chapel actually is mentioned, not Calvary Chapel of Arc City, but Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, where the movement actually started.

And what was interesting to me is the way that they presented Calvary Chapel. Because what they did is they said, you know, Chuck Smith began to bring in all of the hippies of that time because he wanted to add to his church and sort of change the culture of his church. And all I could think was, oh, man, they missed the point. They've missed Jesus. In every big church that they talked about,

they talked about all of these church growth programs. And you know what wearies me more than anything in the world? Talking about a church growth program. How are we going to grow the church? Well, I don't see anywhere in Scripture where it talks about how you're going to grow your church. The only thing I see in Scripture is how you're going to make a disciple, right?

And if that's with 10 people in this church, that's wonderful, because that's who we're making disciples of. If there's more people, then that's wonderful, as long as we're making disciples of Jesus Christ. But you know what's missing in churches today? Jesus. That's who's missing in churches today, because church has been turned into an inn in and of itself.

In other words, what is your goal? And this is what got me the most, we're talking about megachurches. They were like, what is their goal? To build a brand. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If the goal of the church is to build a brand, then we have completely missed the goal. If the goal of the church is to build a big church, then you've completely missed the goal.

Because the goal of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. And if you find yourself thinking, what's the brand of Calvary Chapel? I wonder what the brand is going to be. Then you don't understand what we're doing here. Because what we're doing, what we're doing here is bringing people to Jesus. And if I ever stop bringing people to Jesus, if I ever start deciding that what we want

is a bigger church that builds a brand, then I implore you, remove me. Because I shouldn't be up here. Because that should never be the goal. The goal is to bring people to the one that can save their soul. Because that's why he came. He didn't come to start a movement. He didn't come to change a culture. He didn't come to bring justice, social justice. He came to be a savior.

That takes care of everything else. But you see, they had missed Jesus. Well, he's not done making them angry yet. He has more to do. Verse 9, it says, Departing from there, he went into a synagogue. Excuse me, he went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him?

And he said to them, what man is there among you who has a sheep? And if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep? So then it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out. And it was restored to normal like the others.

But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him. As to how they might destroy him. Now once again, we have a scene that is set for us. It says, Departing from there, he went into their synagogue. Now, whether this is the same day and he was walking through the fields on the way to the synagogue, or whether this is another Sabbath day, I'm not really sure.

But what we know is this is another scene in a very similar situation. He goes into the synagogue and it's the Sabbath day. Now there's one word I would like to point out to you out of verse 9. It says, Departing from there, he went into their synagogue. I don't know why. A couple of the other commentators pointed it out as well. But it really stuck out to me

that that's what it was referred to as. Because it didn't say he went into his house. It didn't say he went into the house of the Lord. He said, see, went into their synagogue. Why? Because it wasn't his. Because he wasn't accepted there. Because he wasn't welcomed there. See, it was their synagogue because they were doing their own thing. Not really following the scriptures.

As God had called for them to. And it brought up a really good question in my own mind, a heart-searching question. If Jesus was here today, would he call our church his church? Or would he say, I went to their church because I'm not welcome there? I think it's a searching question that all of us as believers in Jesus Christ need to continue to ask about the way

that we handle church today. Well, so he says, he went into their synagogue. And the first thing, the first thing that we see is that there was a man there. The man is described to us, he was a man who had a withered hand. The idea is a shriveled up hand. In other words, there was some sort of a malady that he had in one of his hands that caused it to be shrunken up

and no doubt the muscles atrophied and everything else and it didn't operate properly. Now, the other people that are there are the Pharisees, which makes sense because it's a synagogue. But they're there. They are there. Everyone's there. So, felt like a grammar moment where I was really failing. And I probably was. Anyways, here nor there. See what I did?

That's terrible. What was I saying? Oh yeah, so Pharisees are in the room as well and they're thinking to themselves, now's our moment. Let's see if we can accuse him of something. And I feel confident that all of them went. Feels like the right thing at that point in time. And so, as they see this man with the withered hand in walks Jesus, then they decide,

let's ask him a question. Jesus, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Undoubtedly, the guy in the front did this. And the guys in the back are like, yeah, I'm kidding. Right? That's how I feel like the scene went down. And so they ask him this question. Now, you might think to yourself, that's a dumb question to ask. Why would they ask that question? Well, because according to

Pharisaical tradition at this point in time, it was not lawful to do any act of medical work on somebody on the Sabbath day. The only thing you could do is, to prevent them from dying, you could do nothing to heal them. Let me give you an example. If I cut my hand really deep and I've got blood spurting out all over the place, the only thing that I could do, the only thing that anyone could help me do is put a cloth on it to stop the bleeding.

It could not get sutured up. No one could stitch that hand up for me because that would be healing someone on the Sabbath according to their tradition. What a terrible tradition. I'm really accident prone and I don't seem to care what day it is. I like to have accidents, right? I like to hurt myself. And so, that was their rule. So they ask him this question,

is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? And as Jesus looks at them, I love what he does. Now it doesn't say this, but I think Jesus sighed a little bit. I can't prove that scripturally. I can't say that that's actually what took place, but can't you just imagine Jesus, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who gave them the law and the one who loves this guy so much,

this guy with his shriveled up hand, he loves him so much that he decided to lay aside his glory so he could come and give his life for him. And they're treating him as if he is an experiment, a legal debate to be solved. I just think Jesus had to have gone. Because he's just frustrated by this point in time because they keep missing the point. So I love what Jesus does

because he doesn't answer their question. He asks, he asks them a question and it's great because he's going to ask them a very difficult question that they're going to struggle to answer. And it reminds me of something we started talking about a couple of weeks ago. When did the church stop asking hard questions? When did we as the church decide that we should allow the world

to be the one who directs the narrative and not be the one that asks really hard questions? Because sometimes as the church we should be willing to get in someone's face in a very kind and loving sort of way. I don't want you to go all Fred Phelps on me here, right? Like, go get in somebody's, let's call it personal space. And when they're debating you, ask them a genuine question.

Because here's the thing, if you question somebody long enough, eventually their mouth is going to be stopped because they're going to say, I don't know. I was witnessing to a guy in Kansas City one time, young kid, probably 15, 16 years old. And as I was sharing with him, I was asking him questions from the way of the master thing that I've showed you guys before where you, you use the law and ask them, have you broken these laws? And I remember this 15, 16 year old kid.

I asked him, I said, you know, the Bible says, you know, don't commit adultery. But Jesus tells us that adultery is actually if you look at another with lust in your heart that you've already committed adultery and that you're guilty of that before God. And he goes, right? Like he was a little stressed out. I said, so knowing that, would you say that you're guilty of that?

He said, yeah. He said, I stand before God knowing that. What do you think God would say? And he said, I don't know. And I said, does that worry you? And he goes, yeah. I was able to then start sharing with him the truth of the gospel. You see, if you ask somebody a really hard question that they can't answer and their mouth finally gets stopped by God's righteous law

and they are primed and ready to hear the beautiful truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that Jesus came and died to save sinners of whom I am the chief. There's a couple that used to travel around and do music in the Calvary chapels. Their names were Stuart and Stuart. They wore purple a lot and they rode motorcycles. That's all I remember from a kid about them.

But he pastored a church down in Oklahoma City and he said, I moved into a really rough neighborhood. He said, what I have found is that everybody has a lot of beliefs about religion but they don't really know what they believe. He said, so I just started asking people what do you believe? Like, what religion do you follow? He said, my neighbor came out and he knew I was a pastor

and so we started talking. I said, so what do you believe? He said, within a span of about 10 minutes he shared four religions with me. Four religions that all disagree with each other and finally he goes, you know, I don't really know what I believe. And he goes, I can tell. Can I tell you what I believe? And he got to share the whole gospel with him and the guy got saved.

Why? Because he asked a question. When did we stop doing this? Well, this is what Jesus does. Jesus looks at him and says, so who among you, if he has a sheep, falls into a pit on the Sabbath, is not going to take hold of him and lift him out? Which, by the way, the law allowed. If one of your livestock was in a dangerous position, you could release them from that dangerous position.

He said, how many of you are going to go ahead and do that? And of course they probably all went. Right? Because nobody really wanted to claim that because they know where he's going here. And then Jesus brings it home with a really good statement. He said, how much more valuable then is a man than a sheep? See, not only had they missed Jesus in this whole thing,

they had missed compassion and love for their fellow man in all of their laws. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? Because what did Jesus say pretty well sums up all of the law and the prophets, that you would love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and that you would love your neighbor as yourself. So Jesus kind of just puts the cap on it here when he says, so then, it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

And can you imagine hearing those words from Jesus? A little chill shoots right down your spine. And then Jesus looks at this guy with the withered hand. I love it because it was easy for me just to shoot past this with all of the focus on the Sabbath, but I didn't want to do what they did and just shoot past this amazing miracle that happens for this guy. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand.

And he stretched it out and it was restored to normal like the other. I don't know how you picture this in your mind, but you can see this guy who's probably, and his hand's all shriveled up. He can't use it. And if you know anything about muscular systems, you know that if you don't use something, muscle begins to atrophy. And so the muscle just doesn't grow like it's supposed to.

It begins to shriek up. And so it's very small and shrunken up. I remember when my youngest daughter had a cast on her arm. Now she's like the skinniest human being I know. And yet when she had a cast on her arm for six weeks, she took it off and I thought, you can get skinnier. That's amazing. Because her muscles kind of atrophied, right? They got, it's small.

And so here's this guy who his hand is all shrunken up. It's all shriveled up and he can't use it. And Jesus looks at him. He says, stretch out your hand. Now me being the sarcastic person I am probably would have thought, oh yeah, hadn't thought about that one. Who is this guy? Right? Hadn't thought about just trying to stretch my hand out. And yet this guy takes this step of faith

and don't miss this. This is a step of faith because he has to try to do something he's never been able to do before. You can kind of picture it, right? And so he looks and he goes,

he stretches his hand out and he can use it. But I want you to take note of what it says Jesus did. It says, and it was restored to normal, and I love this little caveat here, like the other. In other words, though his hand would have been all atrophied because no muscles would have worked like they were supposed to, when he stretches his hand out, it looks just like the other one.

What an amazing miracle. What a beautiful thing. Now, at this point in time, you would think that the Pharisees were probably just like, oh, he was right. We should care about people. We should follow Jesus. I can't believe he was able to do that. That's amazing. But that's not what they did. Verse 14, but the Pharisees went out and they conspired against him

as to how they might destroy him. Remember what we talked about a few weeks ago, that passive indecision ends up leading to active opposition. That's exactly what's happened to the Pharisees at this point in time. They were somewhat passively indecisive about what they were going to do about Jesus. It was sort of pushing him away and pushing him away and pushing him away,

but that passive indecision ended up leading to a violent opposition. Friends, if Jesus is calling you, the longer you put it off, the more violently you will begin to oppose it. You can't help it. It's just nature. It's what happens to our flesh. So if the Lord is calling you, whether he's calling you to salvation or whether he's calling you to a deeper walk with him,

the longer you push that away, the more you are indecisive or oppose that, the greater chance you have of becoming someone who is violently opposed to it. Now that's where we're going to end for this morning. And as we end there, I want to close up with three things. Let's put a bow on it with three little concluding thoughts. And I've summed these up into three questions.

Number one, are you following the rules of man or are you following the word of God? This can happen for lots of us. Sometimes we know somebody who's really spiritual and we really look up to them, but they've come up with a lot of rules that they live their life by and they tell us if you really want to follow Jesus, you have to also follow these rules. And in order to do that, it ends up becoming a real burden on your life and you start going, man, I just can't measure up to that.

Well, it's because you're following man's rules, not God's word, which is why everything that you hear, you need to test against what God's word has to say to make sure that that's actually God telling you to do this, not man. Because we can all end up putting ourselves under a law if we're not careful because our natural bent is towards legalism. Because if we can be legalistic, then we can put a little sticker on our door that says, I did it, right? We really never grow past being five.

We might not actually put stickers on our door that say, I did it, but in our hearts, we do. Number two, are you living under the burden of law or the freedom of mercy? I don't know why I just like that phrase, the freedom of mercy, because that's exactly what that is. You see, if we're not living according to the word of God, then we're probably following the rules of man.

And if we're following the rules of man, then we're living under the burden of the law and our lives feel exactly like that. I don't know how many of you are here this morning, but perhaps you can appreciate that phrase, the burden of the law, because maybe you have felt yourself being held down, like you can't be good enough, like you can't achieve. God wants you to know something. That burden of the law has been set free through the blood of Jesus Christ, through his mercy.

And the more that you understand the mercy of God in your own life, the more you begin to show that mercy in the lives of others. I have a really hard time holding too many things against people because Jesus keeps telling me how much he could potentially hold against me, but he chooses not to because of his great mercy. When I start realizing that, I start becoming a lot more patient with people. Number three, is your focus on knowing Jesus?

Is your focus on knowing Jesus? Boy, we can lose it quick, can't we? We can get distracted easily. We can get distracted with the wrong things. But you know, we were all created for a purpose. Matter of fact, we're told, and I'll close up with this, we're told in the book of James, do you remember what God did with Adam and Eve every day? It says in the cool of the day,

or literally in the Hebrew, in the breeze of the day, that God would come and he would walk with them until one day when God showed up and Adam and Eve didn't. Why didn't Adam and Eve show up that day? Because they had sinned. And that sin separated them from that fellowship with God. It separated them from knowing Jesus. But do you know what God did? You see, they chose a really bad way

to try to cover their sin. They chose some itchy fig leaves to try to cover their sin. But do you know what God did? We're told that God took the skins of animals and he covered them. Which was the first picture that we have of what Jesus would do for us through the cross, that he would cover us. Why? So that we could get back to our purpose of knowing him.

Are you focused on knowing Jesus today? Well, today is Communion Sunday. So I'm gonna ask them to go ahead and bring the kids on in. This may take a minute, so hang tight with us.

You might turn around and make sure that your child isn't searching for you.

Come on in, kiddos. We're so glad to see you.

Come on in. Okay. So, this is Communion Sunday. So what we are about to do is about to celebrate and remember the death of Jesus for us. It says on that last great night of the feast that Jesus stood up at the dinner table and he took a loaf of bread and he broke it. And he said, take and eat because this is my body that is broken for you. And then he took the cup

and he held up the cup and he said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. And we're told that every time that we partake in this meal, which we're told to do often, that every time we partake in this meal, we declare the death of Jesus. We tell everybody that the reason why I am right with God and the reason why I have unity with all of you is because of the death of Jesus. We tell everybody that the reason why I am right with God is because of the death of Jesus.

Because what we're about to take in with the cracker and the juice is representative of that body that was broken and that blood that was shed. But we're warned in the book of 1 Corinthians to do so in a worthy manner. And it always means two things for us to partake in this in a worthy manner. Number one, it's a family meal. If you're here this morning and you've never invited Jesus into your heart,

maybe you're just like what we talked about here where God's been calling you and you keep pushing it away. And today needs to be the day of salvation. It's as simple as saying, Lord, I'm a sinner, please be my Savior. And He will come into your heart and He will make it His own. You will become a home for Him. And you too can celebrate with us just like family.

The second way that we partake in a worthy manner is that we allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts. We're told to make sure that our hearts are right with Him. That there's no strained relationships because remember, this is a celebration of unity. No strained relationships between each other or between us and the Lord. So I'm gonna invite the worship team to come on up

and they're gonna begin to sing a song. And as they do so, and as the ushers begin handing out the elements, I would like to ask you to do something for me. Would you begin to pray that the Lord would search your heart? Say, Lord, search my heart and show me things that are wrong. And as He shows you those things, confess them to the Lord. Confess them to Him

so that we can all partake in that worthy manner and then we'll celebrate together. As you receive the elements, if you would stand and then we'll all partake together.

Because of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross, we're all family. We all look a little bit different, a lot of different backgrounds, a lot of different styles, a lot of different age groups. When it comes right down to it, we're all family. And we're all family for one reason, what we're celebrating right now. Would you bow with me? Father, we come before you.

And Lord, I just thank you so much for your body that was broken for us. Lord, for your body that endured the stripes, that endured the beatings, the crown of thorns, the nails in your hands and the nail in your feet. Lord, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Father, I thank you for your blood that was shed for us. Your blood that is enough to cover sins.

Precious blood of Jesus that flowed from his side. Lord, the blood that makes us brand new. Lord, I just thank you for the blood of Jesus that was shed for us. And Father, may we always keep in mind this wonderful sacrifice that you've made. And I thank you for this family. I thank you for the family of God. And we just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's partake.

Would you bow with me one last time? Lord, thank you so much. Thank you for what your word has to say. I thank you for the great patience that you continue to show towards us. And Lord, I thank you that you can reset our focus when necessary. And so, Lord, as we do so, I just ask that you would continue to do that work as we leave here. Father, that your word would continue

to sink deeply into our hearts. That you would fashion in us the hearts of men and women of God that you want for us to be. We just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week. Be blessed.