What do you think? We're looking at Mark chapter 2, end of chapter 2, beginning of chapter 3.
If you're looking in one of the Pew Bibles, it's page 838.
So we're looking at Mark chapter 2, verse 23, through chapter 3, verse 6.
Now if you haven't been coming to the evening service, just to give you a heads up, after the preaching time, we'll have a song of reflection and then we'll have an open time for question and answer.
So if you have questions that come to your mind as we're going through this, keep them in mind or jot them down and then you'll have an opportunity to ask them and we'll have a little time to interact a little bit later on.
So we've started that this fall and it's gone really well so far, so I'm looking forward to it tonight.
Alright, let's read Mark chapter 2, beginning of verse 23.
It says this,
One Sabbath, he, Jesus, was going through the grain fields.
And as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
And the Pharisees were saying to him, look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?
And he said to them,
Have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him?
How he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him.
And he said to them,
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.
Again, he entered the synagogue.
And a man was there with a withered hand.
And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.
And he said to the man with the withered hand,
Come here.
And he said to them,
Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?
But they were silent.
And he looked around at them with anger,
grieved at their hardness of heart,
and said to the man,
Stretched out your hand.
He stretched it out,
and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him.
How to destroy him.
Sometimes having a common enemy can bring together unlikely allies.
At the end of this passage, it says the Pharisees got together with the Herodians against Jesus.
Now normally, the Pharisees and the Herodians would have had very little to do with each other.
The Pharisees were a conservative religious movement and cultural movement wanting to preserve Jewish identity against outside influences.
And so they were focused on studying and obeying the Old Testament law and practicing traditional values.
Now the Herodians, on the other hand, they were connected with Herod.
Herod was the Roman Empire's ruler in Galilee.
And they were a political movement that was much more,
that was pragmatic and not religious.
So Herod, for example, Herod had no reservations about disobeying the biblical law.
So he was visiting his brother,
and he fell in love with his brother's wife,
and so he divorced his own wife,
and married his brother's ex-wife,
and she divorced her husband.
So this is the guy that the Herodians were connected with.
And, but, but both of these groups,
these conservative religious people,
and this liberal political movement that didn't really care anything about religion,
joined together against Jesus.
And you sort of think,
what's going on here?
I mean, today this would be sort of like the Tea Party leaders
joining forces with President Obama,
and presenting a united front.
And you sort of think,
what in the world would make that happen?
And then you look at what Jesus did.
Right, what did Jesus do in this passage?
He defends his disciples for having a snack
as they're walking through somebody's field.
And then he heals a guy
who had a paralyzed or withered hand.
And you think,
that doesn't, doesn't make sense.
What's, what's going on here?
What's so controversial?
What's making everybody band together against him?
Well, the passage says both of these things happen on the Sabbath.
And that's why this controversy came up.
So we need to ask three questions tonight.
First, what was the Sabbath all about?
Second, why were Jesus' actions on the Sabbath so controversial?
And third, what do we take away from this story?
These two stories.
So first, what did the Sabbath represent?
Well, in Jesus' time,
the Sabbath was one of the major distinctive aspects
of being Jewish.
It still is today.
Especially for Orthodox Jews.
It was one of the Ten Commandments.
The Ten, it's,
and it says this,
Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
On that day you shall not do any work,
you or your son or your daughter
or your male servant or your female servant
or your livestock or the sojourner
who's within your gates.
That's Exodus 20, 8 through 10.
So everyone in the whole community,
adults and children,
male and female,
slave and free,
native and foreigner,
must rest.
One day a week on the Sabbath.
Now in the larger cultural context,
that was a totally unusual practice.
No other religion in Jesus' time
commanded its followers to take one day every week to rest.
Pagan religions in the Roman Empire had holidays
and days that you had to offer sacrifices to the gods,
but they were inconsistent.
They didn't happen every week.
And especially if you were a slave
or if you were a lower class worker,
you didn't necessarily get the day off.
Or you had to sort of bargain with your employer
and say, well, I'll work double time on Friday
if you give me Saturday off.
Now many of us today take for granted the idea
of having a seven-day work week
or seven-day week
with one or two days normally set aside for rest.
Now it's,
but it wasn't always that way.
And actually it's largely due to the influence
of this biblical command throughout history
that we run on a seven-day week.
Almost anywhere in the world that you go,
you run on,
people run on a seven-day week
and there's usually one day
or sometimes two days
that are mostly set aside for rest.
Now, of course,
that's becoming less and less the case
in our society.
But still,
there are some modern societies
that have tried something totally different.
So the French Revolution said,
we're going to do a 10-day week.
You get nine days of work
and one day of rest.
It lasted for nine years
and then they decided
it was a total failure.
The Soviet Union
tried a five-day week
and then they quickly switched
to a six-day week
and then nine years later
they scrapped the experiment
and said that was a bad idea too.
This week, interestingly,
I read an article
by a guy named Joel Gascoigne.
He's the CEO of an internet company
and the article is called
My Seven-Day Work Week
and Why I Won't Stick With It.
So he had a lot of flexibility
in determining his work schedule,
probably more than most of us,
but he experimented
with working seven days a week
and he said,
I wanted every day
to be exactly the same.
So he said,
every day I would do some work,
every day I'd go to the gym,
every day I'd spend some time
reflecting
and every day I would
spend some time resting.
And so he constructed this schedule.
He said,
I'm not going to actually work
more hours,
but I'm just going to work
more consistently
because, you know,
after the weekend,
I feel on Monday, right,
it's always terrible
to go back to work on Monday.
So why don't I just
make this consistent?
So he tried it for two weeks
and he concluded
it was a bad idea.
Only took him two weeks
to figure it out.
So he says this,
he said,
I worked out for 15 days straight.
In the end,
I strained a muscle
and had to take almost a week off.
In terms of my work,
I was excited during the first week
and even at the weekend,
I enjoyed it.
But in the end,
the seven-day work week
fell apart
because of the lack
of an extended period
of renewal and rest.
Now, this guy is not a Christian,
but at the end of his article,
he quotes
the biblical Sabbath reference
from the book of Genesis.
And he recognizes
the wisdom
of this pattern
that it fits
with how we work.
And he says
to work six days
and to take one day
for rest.
So,
but you know,
the Sabbath wasn't just
sort of a practical device
so that we'd be more
rested and refreshed
and ready to go back to work
at the beginning
of the next week.
The Old Testament
talks about the Sabbath
as a spiritual thing.
And it actually gives
three spiritual meanings
to the Sabbath.
So, first of all,
if you look in Exodus 20,
that's one of the places
where the Ten Commandments is,
it says the Sabbath
is a sign
of God's creation.
It's a reminder
God created the world
in six days
and he rested on the seventh
in the Genesis account.
So, if God rested
from his work,
we should too.
Right?
It's a reminder that
and the Sabbath
would be a day
for us to enjoy.
God's creation.
That's sort of the idea
of resting.
It's not just
falling asleep
for 24 hours,
it's really
just sitting back,
enjoying the good things
that God has created
and being reminded
that God's our creator
and we're his creatures.
But the second
spiritual meaning
of the Sabbath
was that it was a sign
of God's redemption.
In other words,
his liberating the people
from slavery in Egypt.
And Deuteronomy 5
is the reference for this
if you want to look that up.
Some other time,
it says,
observe the Sabbath
because you were slaves
in Egypt
and God brought you
out from there.
So, in other words,
you know,
if you were one
of the Israelites,
when you were in Egypt,
you worked seven days
every week
because you had
a harsh master
who never would
let you rest.
And you had no hope
of gaining your freedom
no matter how hard
you tried.
but now God says,
I've set you free
from that.
I've brought you
out of that.
I've done what you
could never do
for yourself.
And so,
I'm giving you
the Sabbath
so you can remember
that.
That every week
when you take
one day to rest,
you can remember
I'm not a slave
anymore.
God,
and I'm not a slave
because God
stepped in
and set me free.
And so,
it's a celebration
of freedom.
That's what the Sabbath
was meant to be.
Really.
And so,
the command is there
because God
was saying to the people,
don't act like
you're still a slave
because you're not
slaves anymore.
Don't act like
you're still in bondage.
And don't become
a harsh master
to other people.
If you're a boss
or an employer,
don't make your employees
keep,
don't drive them
into the ground.
Don't just make them
work and work and work
and never give them
a break
on a weekly basis.
So,
the Sabbath was
a time to step back
and remember.
You know,
and really,
this applies to all of us,
not just to the people
in the Old Testament.
When we rest,
we can remember
God created,
God created each one of us.
God created the world
all by himself.
Right?
You had no part,
I had no part
in my parents
choosing to conceive me.
I played absolutely
no role in that.
Right?
I had no part
in God choosing
to create the world
and everything
that I enjoy
from a day-to-day basis.
And you know what?
In the Bible,
it also says
that when God
sent Jesus,
when God
sent Jesus Christ
to die on the cross
for our sins
and rise again,
you know what?
I had no part
in that either.
God did it
all by himself
without me doing
any work.
He did all
that was necessary
for our salvation.
And so the Sabbath
is a time to remember
God created me
all by himself
and God saved me
all by himself
for his own glory.
So,
and third,
it was a sign
of God's promise
to one day
bring his people
into an everlasting rest.
So when the prophets
spoke about
the kingdom of God
or the Messiah
or the age to come,
sometimes they would
talk about it
in terms of
an eternal Sabbath.
A time of rest
and of peace
and flourishing
and growth.
So that was
the spiritual significance
of the Sabbath
in the Bible.
But,
in Jesus' time,
it had become
something more.
It was a topic
of technical debate
among the religious leaders.
So we have actually
a lot of documents
from this time
that go through
what can you do
on the Sabbath
and what can't you do
on the Sabbath.
Because the question
people were asking was,
well, it says
don't do any work.
So what qualifies
as work
and what's not?
You know,
what about
taking a run
for five miles?
What about
taking a run
for ten miles?
Well, most of us
aren't quite up
to ten miles,
but what about
taking a run
for one mile?
What about
taking a long walk?
You know,
does that qualify
as work?
They had all these
kinds of discussions.
And they said,
what about traveling?
So their answer was,
you can walk
up to
1,999 steps
on the Sabbath.
But if you walk
2,000,
too much walking,
that's work.
What if a building
falls down?
Well, the answer is,
you can remove
enough of the rubble
to see if anybody's
still alive,
but you have to wait
to bury the dead bodies
until the next day.
Seriously.
They discussed
these things,
and even before
these situations
happened,
they had all
these discussions.
What if somebody
is sick?
You know,
can a doctor work?
They said,
well,
if it's life-threatening,
you can take care of them.
If you just have a cold,
then no,
you can't go to the store
and get some Tylenol.
Doesn't cut it.
You've got to wait
until Sabbath is over.
Now,
the Pharisees
spent a lot of time
discussing these questions,
and they were
the most powerful group
in society at that time,
so they actually
were able to enforce
their standards
on pretty much
everyone else.
And even today,
within the Orthodox
Jewish community,
many of these standards,
many of these
technical details
are still followed
through today.
And so,
back then,
the Pharisees
sort of decided
these are the rules,
and pretty much
everybody else
had to follow that.
Now, of course,
there are some people
who didn't really like that.
Right?
In any society
that's dominated
by conservative
religious people,
there are always
some other people
who either quietly
or publicly
distance themselves
and say,
I don't want that.
And those would have
been the Herodians.
And so,
they got into politics
and just focused
on politics,
try to distance
themselves from religion.
Anyway,
so you have these
two groups,
right?
You have the Pharisees
who are sort of
obsessed with
technical details
of religion,
and then the Herodians
who don't really
believe in religion
at all.
And now,
enter Jesus.
Jesus doesn't fit
either of these
categories.
Okay?
Now you think,
so what did Jesus
do?
You might just think,
well,
Jesus was trying
to sort of push
the boundaries
a little bit.
That he was,
you know,
a progressive
and a conservative
society.
He was sort of
more on the
Herodian side.
Right?
Just trying to say,
just relax.
You know,
it's not that
important anyway.
Just let everybody
do what they want
to do.
But it's actually,
but it's interesting
that there's,
there's actually
something more
going on than that.
Right?
And if you look
in verse 24,
the Pharisees say,
look,
your people
are breaking
the law
of the Sabbath.
They're doing
what's unlawful.
But Jesus doesn't say,
well,
actually,
what they're doing
doesn't really qualify
as harvesting grain,
so it really doesn't
qualify as work,
so you really shouldn't
count it as work,
because technically,
it doesn't count.
He doesn't get into
a technical debate.
What he says is,
he gives an
unusual answer.
So he refers to
an incident in
King David's life
from 1 Samuel 21.
David's men were
hungry and
didn't have
anywhere else
to get food.
So he went to,
he did something
that was technically
illegal against
the law in order
to provide for
his men.
Now you think,
well,
why would Jesus
refer back to that?
Well,
he's basically saying,
well,
if David can do
that,
so can I.
But then step back,
think about it.
That's sort of like
saying,
if President Obama
can break the law
to, you know,
travel to an
important meeting,
if he can break
the speed limit
on the highway
in the car that
he's being driven in,
then so can I.
Of course not.
Or the New Haven
police.
Sort of like saying,
well,
if the police
can turn on
their sirens
and go through
red lights,
I can too.
No,
you can't.
Because you don't
have that authority.
The only way
what Jesus says
makes sense
is if he's claiming
to have more
authority than
King David.
He says King David
could do this.
David could override
the law
in this situation.
So can I.
Because I have
even more authority
than David.
And then in verse 28
he says the Son of Man,
referring to himself,
is the Lord
even of the Sabbath.
Now no Jewish teacher
back then or today
would ever say
that.
Because God
made the Sabbath.
In the Old Testament
it says God set apart
the seventh day.
It wasn't a human
invention.
God says keep
my Sabbaths.
They're mine.
The Lord's.
And so when Jesus
says I'm the Lord
of the Sabbath,
what in the world
is he saying?
He's saying I'm God.
You see why people,
now do you start
to see
why people
got mad at him?
Because he wasn't
just saying hey
you should just relax
a little bit
and change the,
make the rules
a little bit more lenient.
He was saying
I'm in charge
of this thing.
I made this thing
in the first place.
I've come to do
and be exactly
what it was meant
for.
And he forces
the issue.
Right in the next
section he calls
out this guy
and says hey
Tommy come on
up here.
You don't have
to come up here.
Okay but literally
it says stand
in the middle.
It's translated
come here but he
means he's saying
stand up in the
middle of the
synagogue.
And he challenges
everyone.
He's like what's
right here?
And then he goes
and heals the man.
You know if Jesus
just wanted to heal
the man he could
have done so
privately.
Or the next day
right?
The man had the
withered hand
for a long time.
One more day
wouldn't have been
a big deal.
Right?
Jesus is provoking
the leaders
because he claims
authority over the
Sabbath.
We've seen this
theme.
Right?
If you've been
coming in the
evening we've been
looking at Jesus
authority.
Jesus authority
over sickness.
Jesus authority
over evil spirits.
Jesus authority
in cleansing
the unclean.
In forgiving sins.
And in interpreting
the law.
And that's what
threatened both
the Pharisees
and the Herodians.
Because the
Pharisees said
we're in charge
of religion.
We want to be
the religious
authorities.
And Jesus says
I'm an authority
there.
And the Herodians
say well we don't
really care about
religion.
We want to be
the political
authorities.
And Jesus says
I'm the authority
over everything.
Without any
exceptions.
And so both of
them were threatened
by that.
But do you see
Jesus isn't just
saying I'm in
charge of this.
What Jesus does
is exactly what
the Sabbath was
meant to do.
The whole point
of having a day
of rest is to
refresh people
who are tired
and to give
restoration to
people who are
broken.
And to care
for people.
that's what
Jesus does
here.
Right?
He heals
the man who
has the
withered hand.
Isn't that a
picture of what
the Sabbath was
meant to do?
To take all the
withered dried up
parts of our
life and bring
them before God
and give them
life again.
And the way he
does it he just
says a word.
He says stretch
out your hand.
He doesn't touch
the guy.
He doesn't actually
do any work.
He just says a
word.
It's exactly
like what God
did in creation.
God speaks a
word and it
happens.
And something
beautiful comes
to light.
So the question
is how do we
respond to Jesus?
It's not a
question isn't how
do you interpret
the technical
details of the
Sabbath or other
religious observances.
The question is how
do we respond to
Jesus who claims to
be the end all
be all of them
all.
So let me
challenge you.
You can't stay
merely neutral
about Jesus.
Now maybe you're
here for the first
time.
Maybe you're just
starting to explore
Christianity.
I encourage you to
come back and keep
learning.
Ask questions.
But you know
eventually you must
decide one way or
the other about
Jesus.
He's either the
Lord of everything
as he claims to be.
Otherwise he's lying
or crazy and not
trustworthy.
If Jesus was just
simply a wise man and
nothing else he would
never have said I'm
the Lord of the
Sabbath.
Now finally for
those of us who do
follow Jesus let me
conclude with two
applications.
Two things we can
take away and we can
talk more about these
in the Q&A.
So first Jesus says in
verse 27 the Sabbath
was made for man.
In other words made
for people.
And you know the
Sabbath is in the law
but was also in
instituted in creation.
It's a good gift from
God to all people.
Now today we sort of
live in the opposite
kind of culture that
they lived in back
then.
Back then the culture
was dominated by the
Pharisees.
These conservative
religious people who
enforced lots and
lots of rules on
everybody else.
Today we've sort of
swung the other way.
Right?
Our culture is very
much more secular.
Much more pragmatic.
And we have fewer
and fewer boundaries
in place in our
culture that would
promote any kind of
Sabbath keeping.
Right?
Stores are open today
every day of the week.
You can go online
anytime you want.
Et cetera.
So the question is
are we pursuing and
receiving God's gift
of the Sabbath?
You know do you think
do you think this?
Do you think you know
maybe I don't really
understand what that
would be like to
actually try to
somehow take a day
or some regular
time every week
for rest?
But you know I
really want to
practice the Sabbath
somehow because
God's given it to me
for my good.
I really want to
take one day in
seven if possible
to do no work.
And to remember
God created me
all by himself.
and God sent
Jesus and Jesus
saved me all by
himself and one day
he's going to come
back and he's going
to finish the work
he's done.
I don't have to add
anything to it.
Or do you just
think oh no
I'm serving the
Sabbath.
That sounds
burdensome and
restrictive and
isn't there some
reason why since
we're Christians we
don't have to obey
that rule?
But see if you're
thinking that way
then you've missed
the point.
The Sabbath is meant
to be a good gift
for us.
Now I know it's
complicated.
I know that some
of you are in
situations where
you're required or
expected to work
seven days a week
and you have no
say in the matter.
I understand that.
We can talk about
that.
In biblical terms
that would be called
oppression actually.
And you know most
people in the world
are oppressed in
one way or other
but you shouldn't
choose to be
oppressed when you
don't have to be.
So let me challenge
you with that.
I'll leave it there.
We can talk more
about that.
Second, so receive
the Sabbath as a
gift.
But second, receive
the spiritual meaning
of the Sabbath that
Jesus has come to
fulfill.
And Jesus made it
and he embodies it.
He came to bring
everything that the
Sabbath was meant as
a symbol to point
forward to.
He came to bring us
rest from our
strivings to prove
ourselves before God
and before other
people.
When he died on the
cross he said,
it's done.
It's finished.
It's complete.
You know, maybe you
feel like the man in
the synagogue with a
withered hand.
That there's some part
of your life,
whether it's physically
or emotionally or
spiritually,
that's just been
withered and dried up.
And no matter how
hard you try,
you can't bring it to
life again.
And Jesus invites you
to stretch out your
hand to him.
And ask him to come
and restore and bring
life to that part of
you.
He's come to refresh
and restore and heal.
That's why Jesus has
come.
That's why he did
these things on the
Sabbath.
To show us that he's
all that the Sabbath
was ever meant to be.
So let's pray.
Lord Jesus, we pray
that you would
help us to come to you
and rest
tonight.
And we pray that you
would be here by your
Holy Spirit,
that as that man in
the synagogue,
experienced your
restoring power,
simply as you spoke
a word to him.
Lord, that your word
would speak to us.
Lord, that we might
be restored and
refreshed and
encouraged and
prepared for the work
that you do call us
to do.
But Lord, that we
might remember
tonight.
Lord, that we
are saved by grace
and not because of
anything that we've
done.
Lord, that you've
made us
and you've
redeemed us
and you're
completely sufficient
to make us
whole.
So Lord, help us to
rest in you tonight
and every week.
In Jesus' name,
amen.
Amen.
A couple
guidelines.
Raise your hand if
you have a question.
State your question
briefly and
clearly.
I'll try to repeat
it so everybody
can hear.
If your question
is maybe on a
different topic,
I might say that
it would be better
to talk about it
afterwards.
I'd be happy to do
that.
But we'll try to
keep to questions
that are mostly
focused on the
passage here.
So yeah, we've
got about eight
or ten minutes
and then we'll
end.
So any
questions?
Elizabeth?
Okay, Sabbath,
yes.
So literally it
just means the
seventh day
or the day of
rest.
Which day is it?
So in the Old
Testament, it was
from Friday night
to Saturday night.
That's the Jewish
Sabbath.
In the New
Testament, so in
the New Testament
doesn't talk about
a one particular
day as the
Sabbath.
So it talks about
Sunday as the
Lord's Day when
Christians meet
together because we
celebrate Jesus'
resurrection.
And for much of
Christian history,
many Christians have
tried to observe
something like a
day of rest,
rest on Sundays
because that's
when Jesus rose
from the dead
and so that's
why we do
that.
But it's not
in some cultures,
so Christians who
live in the Middle
East or in
Muslim countries
often have
Fridays off and
they often meet
for church on
Fridays, which is
when the Muslims
meet for their
prayer service.
But that's the
time when they
can most conveniently
meet together
because most of
them are required
to work on Sunday
and wouldn't be
able to get
around that.
So I don't
think it's a
command in the
New Testament
that we must
meet on Sunday
and not on any
other day of the
week.
But I think it
is appropriate
when we can,
when it's possible
to meet on Sundays
because Jesus rose
from the dead on
that day and
because that's
such a defining
event for
Christians.
it's a
v gruddle.
Yes.
It's a particular day when God gives you us.
You choose your Wednesdays and your other day.
Yeah.
So for me as a pastor, I have to work every Sunday.
And so I take Mondays as my Sabbath.
I'm able to do that.
I try to take that as my day of rest.
Again, you know, this, it's not always easy to do.
So in college, sometimes I would try to take from Saturday night to Sunday evening and then sort of do the sunset to sunset idea.
Again, I don't think we have to focus on the technical details.
I think part of what Jesus is saying is not so much about the technical details.
It's about the meaning.
The spiritual meaning is more important.
But I think taking some time, you know, if you have to work on Sunday, I'd encourage you, you know, is there another day of the week that you can take?
Or can you take, you know, part of Sunday and part of the next day, part of Saturday and Sunday morning or whatever?
Again, I think the day that you take is much less important.
I think setting apart some time every week for that rest and to worship God is the most crucial thing.
And I think that might look different at different stages of life.
So my wife and I have a three-year-old and a one-year-old.
Okay, so tomorrow is a holiday.
So our three-year-old does not have his preschool.
So I'm supposed to be taking a day of rest.
But my wife hasn't been feeling well.
I don't know how restful tomorrow will feel.
Like, that's just life.
You know, life intervenes.
But I'm going to, you know, trust the Lord and receive what he gives me.
And so I think that's, it'll look different at different times of life.
Yes?
Does it mean that God rested?
Yes.
So I think it's the idea of God enjoying his creation, taking delight in what he had made.
Right?
In the days of the creation story, right?
He's creating things during this six-day pattern.
And then the seventh day he rested.
And I think, actually, that seventh day, it wasn't just that God rested on the seventh day and then started creating all over again the next day.
That seventh day actually seems to be a much longer day.
It's not a 24-hour day.
I'm not sure the other days are either.
But the seventh, when it says God rested on the seventh day, it means he had completed his work of creation.
And it says that he invites us to enter into his rest.
So actually in Hebrews, which we'll be looking at in a couple weeks in the morning service, it talks about entering into the Sabbath rest that God has prepared for us as his people to share with him.
So, and one other interesting comparison.
So there were some other stories about the gods creating the world back in the day when Moses lived.
And some of them said the gods created people so that people could be slave labor for them while they got to rest.
So basically, in these other pagan religions, the idea was that the gods make us to do their work for them so they can rest.
And the idea in the Bible is that God has everything he needs all by himself.
So he doesn't need us to do his work for him.
He can finish his work all by himself.
And he does.
And then he invites us actually to share in that rest with him.
So he's perfectly sufficient in himself.
And he generously offers us to receive from his sufficiency.
So I think that's an amazing thing.
It's a beautiful thing.
So it sounds like what you're saying is it's been the Sabbath day ever since creation?
The Sabbath you mean?
Well, in a second you said, so on the seventh day God rested.
And that rest has never ended.
So would you say it's still?
Yeah, is it still the seventh day?
So I think it's maybe symbolically used in the Bible.
So in some sense, in one sense I would say yes.
It's been the seventh day ever since creation.
The only thing I would say there is that on the first day of the week, Jesus rose from the dead.
And it talks about Jesus' resurrection as his work of new creation.
So in one sense, yeah, God finished creating the world a long time ago.
And it's continued to, you know, he continues to sustain it and develop it.
And so he finished it back then.
But then the world, right, what happened?
Well, we turned away from God and fell into sin.
And the world became a mess.
And so Jesus came to do a work of new creation.
And in his resurrection, it was the first day of God's new creation.
And so, but it also talks about us still entering into God's rest.
So it's a little bit of a mixed metaphor, I think.
We're both part of God's new creation work and we're invited to enter into his Sabbath rest.
I think we got both of those at once.
All right, last question.
Chris.
Does the phrase son of man connect the two stories?
Yeah, so Jesus refers to himself as the son of man in verse 28.
And let's see, I don't think he refers to himself in the chapter 3 part.
But I think that's the central claim that Jesus is making here, that he's the Lord of the Sabbath.
And that both of these stories and what Jesus does reflects that.
In healing the man and restoring him.
And also defending his disciples, caring for his disciples when they were hungry and in need.
You know, that's what Jesus does for us.
Let me just end with this thought.
Because it really struck me this week.
You know, Jesus' disciples were the ones who were picking some grain and snacking on it.
But Jesus stands up for them.
He defends them.
And he defends us when we're wrongly accused by others.
And so if other people have accused you and you were not at all at fault, Jesus is your defender.
If you trust in him.
And he hears every word that they have said.
And he sees everything that you did and that they did.
And he knows the truth.
And one day, the truth will come to light.
And so don't be afraid.
And don't get really mad and try to throw it back in their face when they do that to you.
But trust that you have a defender.
Who's going to stick up for you.
And he has stuck up for you and he will in the future.
All right.
Let me end with a few announcements.
Look at your bulletin.
There's a lot of...
You got an extra large bulletin this week.
Because there's lots of exciting stuff coming up.
I'm just going to run through stuff real quick.
If you're a woman, there is a fall dessert.
Elizabeth is hosting it.
Elizabeth is right back there.
If you can raise your hand.
If you have questions or want to meet her or need a ride, you can talk to her or contact Emily.
Who's also one of the other contacts for that.
It's next Tuesday.
Not this week, but following Tuesday.
If you...
From here today.
We're going to hear you from the other family.
You can do any further along.
If you're going to have a room with the USA, I need a few questions for those.
We've got some new ideas.
We go to theão Bus.
We're almost eating a bit later.
We're going to be on the other side.