Sermon Tone Analysis

We are back into are expositional walk through the book of Mark, as we we bear witness to the “ Matchless Power of the Mighty Miracle Worker” .

If you recall, when we were with Mark last, just before Christmas, we left part one of of a two part message, the sermon title was when “Tradition and Truth Collide” and the two part message was to be split down to the two questions the Pharisees asked as in the closing passages of Chapter 2.

In Mark 2 verses 18 - 22, the Pharisees and indeed the disciples of John who should have known better asked the question about fasting

Why aren't your disciples fasting!! is the charge levelled, and if you remember Christ responds with two illustrations for them.

One about marriage celebration - Jesus was with them so why fast?

remember fasting was a way of seeking God

The second illustration is around new and old, and who they can be similar but not compatible - new cloth on old cloth, new wine in old wineskins.

Jesus is giving them a little dispensational teaching, the things that were, will not be fit for what is to come, things will be different.

Now, we concluded that message by confirming that fasting was a bad thing, the heart behind it had to be correct, it wasn't to be some outward legalistic tradition, but the truth was that it was to personal, and heart felt, earnest way of seeking God for protection, guidance, help and in fact we found from the apostle Paul’s example that fasting was part of his spiritual life.

So fasting is not to be abandoned indeed I encourage it, but it has to be done right, in truth and not tradition.

When truth and tradition collide - Truth wins.

Now!!

The Second question comes, lets read

The second question comes as a result of what the Pharisees had witnessed doing as apposed to their first charge based on something that the disciples weren't doing.

Let’s set the context

So Jesus and the disciples went through the cornfields.

The fields would have had many pathways that crossed through them, a bit like the public walkways we have all around us in Spalding that allowing free passage through fields.

So this was noting unusual at all.

The day in question was a Sabbath day.

The Sabbath day for the Jew was the last day of the week - Saturday and it began Sundown on the Friday to Sundown on the Saturday.

Doesn't seem like anything is amiss, nothing dodgy going on at all, so what was the problem?

The problem lies in the mindset of the Pharisees as they witnessed the actions of the Disciples, you see the disciples, plucked the crops, the heads of the grain, probably wheat or barley.

arhhhh, shock horror!!!! they plucked some corn!! the rebels!! off with their heads!!!

I mean seriously what is the problem with these guys, their problem is, that it is the Sabbath.

Now why is that a problem, well lets have a look firstly at the The Tradition of the Sabbath before we deal with the Truth of the Sabbath.

1.

The Tradition of the Sabbath

Now we must go back to the giving of the law

So we find the Sabbath details given as part of the Law.

Now we have already seen from our studies that the when Jesus walked the earth, over a thousand years after the Law was given to Moses on mount Sinai, the Jewish Religious Teachers had desecrated the Spirit of the law and had turned it into a legalistic mechanism for self righteousness

The religious leaders had developed a religious system with 613 laws.

They chose the number 613 because that was how many separate letters were in the text containing the Ten Commandments.

Then they found 613 commandments in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament).

They divided the list into affirmative commands (do this)

There were 248 affirmative commands, one for every part of the human body, as they understood it.

There were 365 negative commands, one for each day of the year.

And with the confines of this legalistic system of Law the Pharisees had a problem with what Jesus and his followers were doing .

By the standards of Law set by the Pharisees the Disciples were gulity of several violations of Sabbath Day Law.

They were guilty of reaping by picking the grain

They were guilty of sifting by removing the husks and the shell

They were guilty of winnowing by through the chaff in the air

They were guilty of preparing a meal by eating the grain after they had cleaned it

Now, this seems a nonsense to us doesn’t it, but that was the tradition of the Sabbath that Jesus encountered.

But a silly as that sounds, there are those today that want to uphold this type of legalistic thought concerning the Sabbath, ranging from varying levels of extremes on it.

For example The Seven Day adventists for example believe that Sunday Worship is Devil Worship, it is the Mark of the Beast to have Sunday as the Christian Sabbath.

So the legalistic spirit that lay upon the Pharisees of old still lives today, in the tradition of the Sabbath.

But what of the Truth of the Sabbath

2. The Truth of the Sabbath

Jesus rebukes the Pharisees at the very heart of their argument, the very place they got all things wrong - they were solely about the letter of the Law missing the spirit of the Law.

Jesus takes them back to Old Testament, to account of King David.

“Have Ye Not Read” he states, they should known better as they profess themselves to be scholars of scripture and the things of God.

The account if that of King David found in 1 Samuel Chapter 21, where David is fleeing to escape Saul empty handed and hungry.

David desperate for food, goes to the priest, but he only has the Holy Bread, left over from ceremonial purposes, and that bread once it has served its ceremonial purpose was only to be eaten of by the Priests as per the Law.

Here Jesus is pointing to compassion above ceremony and tradition.

Then Jesus goes on to enforce his point

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

The Pharisees had taken a blessing and made it a burden, They had got it all wrong, upside down.

Then Jesus takes it up a level

Here Jesus is declaring his Messiahship, the Title “Son of Man” taken from Daniel 7

in the parallel account in Matthew 12, Jesus also states these words

So Jesus at the head of this rebuke declares he sovereignty over the Sabbath, His Deity and his Messiahship.

As God in Human flesh he flattened their pathetic misguided Human efforts to please God through their own self righteousness.

That was the truth the Pharisees needed to hear.

Conclusion

Now as we close out, what about the practical application for us today, where do we stand in relation to the Sabbath?

Well firstly we need to be clear that the Sabbath was given to a Nation - Israel

The Sabbath was given as a sign of the Mosaic covenant, The Law, which was given to Israel.

The Sabbath Day was a ceremonial law (not moral law as the other nine commandments in Exodus 20).

Adam, Abraham, Noah all lived before the Law was given, they weren't commanded to keep the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was for Israel

Now the Church is not Israel, the Church is a separate body altogether, and we don’t live under the law, as in the Mosaic Covenant, we are under Grace, as in the New Covenant.

So what does that mean for us Today, well firstly we are freed from having to Worship or Work as we please on a Saturday.

But what about Sunday, is that not our Sabbath day in affect?

Well we worship on a Sunday because that is the Day the Lord rose from the grave, the first day of the week.

The early Church met on the first day of the week, so we meet on the first day of the week.

But wait, the early Church met also on the second, and third, and forth, and Fifth and Sixth and Seventh days of the week.

Surely if we are to meet on the basis of the early Church pattern we should meet daily!

People can barely make it to two Services on a Sunday never mind a daily one!

We meet on Sunday because we choose to not because we are forced to, this is the beauty of the dispensation of Grace, the Church age that we live in

The New Testament makes the observance of a particular day not a binding obligation but a choice.

Romans 14:5-6 makes it clear that there was freedom in the matter of special days

Colossians 2:16-17 commanded the church not to allow anyone to act as their judge in regard to Sabbath days or feast days.

And Galatians 4:9-10 warns against going back under the Law by insisting on observing by requirement the special days given to Israel.

If one wants to worship on Saturday or Sunday or any other day they have the freedom to do so under the new covenant of grace.

It is when they make this a command- a requirement for all believers that they go wrong.

As we head to the New Year, I want to challenge us as a Church that we all stop living for the Sabbath Day, that one day a week type mentality were we give God Sunday, but nothing else.

The Sabbath Day mentality where we trust in our own efforts to get us through, The Sabbath Day mentality where we let tradition take rule!

Let’s move away from that and leave it were it belong in the Age of Law and let’s move to where we should be in the Age of Grace.

I want us a Church, and as individuals to move from the Sabbath Day to the Sabbath Life, as God intending it to be, entering into a life of resting in HIm.

The Sabbath Day was nailed to the cross with Jesus

Today, Jesus is our Sabbath, in Whom we completely rest for salvation.

We are saved by ceasing from our own self-righteous human efforts, and instead completely resting in Christ's death upon the cross for our sins, His burial, and His bodily resurrection three days later.

Thats not just a day of resting in him, its a life of resting in Him.

I wonder are you resting in him this morning, if your not you need to be, for he is the answer to all, he is the Saviour, he is the redeemer, he is Lord of the Sabbath a Lord over all and we need to rest in him and not ourselves, not just one day a week but each and everyday of our lives.

As Truth and Tradition collide regarding the Sabbath we must walk the Path of truth and move from Sabbath Day Tradition to Sabbath Life Truth

Lets Pray