Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,
and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today. A special welcome if you're new or visiting.
We're glad that you're here, and we're glad that you're here not because we are trying to fill seats,
but because we're following Jesus together as one community. And as we follow Jesus together,
we become convinced there's no one so good, they don't need God's grace, and no one so bad that they can't have it,
which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in His Word,
because we believe that God has something to say to everyone. He has something to say to people who've been Christians their entire lives.
He has something to say to people who've been Christians maybe a few months or a few weeks.
And He has something to say to people who would not consider themselves Christians,
people who have questions or doubts or objections to Christianity.
And so we come now, we're continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark.
You'll remember that the Gospels tell the story of Jesus and His life and His death and His resurrection.
And as we've been coming at the Gospels, we've been asking two simple questions.
Question one, who is Jesus? And question two, how do we respond to Him?
Last week, we looked at the story about fasting and new wine and old wineskins,
and new cloth on old garments, and we saw the newness and the joy and the celebration of the Gospel.
Jesus came in confrontation with the religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees.
And this morning, we're going to see another confrontation that Jesus has in this series,
again with the religious leaders of Judaism.
This time, however, as we've looked at already this morning when it comes to the Fourth Commandment,
what it means to honor the Sabbath day.
And so we're going to look at what Jesus has to teach us about that, and we're going to jump right in.
I invite you to turn with me. You can turn on your phone or in your worship guide or in your Bible.
No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's Word, and God tells us that His Word is more precious than gold,
even the finest gold, and it's sweeter than honey, even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.
And so that's why we read now Mark 2, starting in verse 23.
One Sabbath, He 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 priest 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.
Verse 1.
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,
Stretch 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.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's Word.
Our Father in Heaven, we thank You again this morning,
that You love us as Your children, and You help us.
You instruct us in Your Word.
And so we ask simply again that You would do that,
that You would speak clearly to us this morning,
that we would understand our need for You and Your grace in our lives,
and we would also see that You haven't left us alone.
You meet us, and You give us all the grace that we need.
We ask these things,
grateful again that we don't earn them or deserve them.
Instead, we simply ask them.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
If you've been with us, you know that week after week as we come to our congregational prayer,
no matter which elder is up here,
we always pray for the women in our congregation who are pregnant.
And we praise God that we have so much life that's coming in this congregation.
But I want you to take a little bit of a thought experiment with me.
I want you to imagine that we're here in worship,
and there's a woman who's pregnant,
and maybe it's about a week before her due date,
and suddenly she starts having contractions.
And quickly we realize this is not a drill.
It is time to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.
So I'm in the middle of the sermon,
but her husband and her head out,
and they're on the way to the hospital.
They get on to I-25.
Her husband, knowing how important it is to get her to the hospital quickly,
and knowing that it's Sunday morning,
and there's not a lot of traffic,
decides to put the pedal to the metal.
And so, in this section of I-25, right, it's 65,
but let's say he's going 75.
Maybe he's going 80.
Okay, and we understand why, right?
His goal is to get his wife to the hospital as quickly as possible.
Now, it also happens that it is near the end of the month,
and there's a lot of police that are out on Sunday morning
looking for someone to pull over.
Okay?
So, this husband ends up being pulled over by a police officer.
Police officer comes, and he tries to explain,
look, we are on our way to the hospital.
My wife is in the middle of giving birth.
We need to get there as quickly as possible.
Police officer has several options at this point, right?
Option one, he could let them go.
Okay, I understand this is a difficult situation.
I understand what's happening here.
Proceed to the hospital.
Option two, he gives the husband a ticket.
If he's going over 80,
he makes sure he gives him a ticket for reckless driving.
What's the right choice?
Trick question.
Neither of those are correct.
The correct response for the police officer is to turn on his lights
and tell them that all they need to do is follow him.
And then he should clear traffic for them going 85 or 90 miles per hour
as long as it's safe
so that this man and his wife can get to the hospital as quickly as possible.
Why?
The reason is that laws are not arbitrary.
As one man has said,
the law reflects the heart or the values of the lawgiver.
What is the purpose of the speed limit?
What is the heart or the value behind it?
The heart and value behind the speed limit
is that we would honor and protect life.
If the police officer in this situation wants to honor and protect life,
he honors that greater principle
by ignoring the minor regulation and honoring the greater value.
Okay?
He understands that the law does not exist for itself.
It has a purpose and a direction.
And so in doing that,
he wants to make sure the life of this child and this mother are protected
and they end up to the hospital as quickly as possible.
Now on the one hand,
this is a thought experiment.
On the other hand,
this happens all the time.
So if you look this up,
you'll find multiple instances of this happening.
There's a news article every few years
about the husband who gets pulled over for speeding
while he's driving his wife,
his pregnant wife,
to the hospital.
And there's a variety of responses.
If you look at it,
most of them that I could find,
the husband gets a ticket.
In fact,
in one situation,
the police officer told him,
your wife will be giving birth to the child.
You will be in jail.
There was one instance though,
in Kentucky actually this year,
this summer,
police officer turned on his lights
and just said,
follow me.
And he escorted them to the hospital.
Right?
Because he understands that there are some things
that are greater than certain laws.
That's the situation we're encountering here
in this passage,
in the illustration that Jesus uses.
We find him and his disciples in verse 23,
they're traveling somewhere.
We're not told where.
And apparently they're hungry as they're going.
They're walking through a field.
And so they decide to feed themselves.
Now this was actually allowed,
according to Old Testament law.
If you were going through a field,
you were allowed to pick grains off the top.
This is stated explicitly in Deuteronomy.
So they're not stealing.
They're doing something that's allowed.
It just happens they're doing the right thing
on the wrong day.
They are doing it on the Sabbath,
the day when they're supposed to rest from work.
And this is considered apparently to be a type of reaping.
And so they're working technically on the Sabbath
when they're not supposed to.
They're breaking the law.
Now there's some debate in this situation
about whether this is actually forbidden
by the Old Testament,
whether this is something that the scribes
and the Pharisees made up,
whether it's a law that they added.
We're not going to resolve that debate this morning.
All we know is that Jesus' reaction here,
his response assumes that the Pharisees are correct.
Jesus responds to them
as if his disciples actually are breaking the law.
And he gives an example here,
the example that we read earlier this morning
from 1 Samuel chapter 21.
He says, don't you remember?
He's engaging, by the way,
in a type of religious debate here.
He's meeting the Pharisees on their own turf.
He knows they like to talk Bible text,
so he's going to talk a Bible text to them.
And he reminds them,
when the great king of Israel, David, was traveling
and he was in need and hungry,
and his men with him,
they also broke a rule.
The rule that they broke was that they took food
that was supposed to be only for the priests.
David, of course, not a priest.
He's a king.
And it's not stated explicitly in 1 Samuel 21,
but it's implied or believed
that that was also on a Sabbath day.
And so he points them to this similar situation.
Look, you're upset about this,
but David, the great king, also did this.
And then he clarifies for them this principle.
Yeah, technically the law was broken.
You are correct.
And it was done to meet a higher law,
a greater principle.
In other words,
they would have missed the forest for the trees
if they had refused to feed these starving people
because this bread was only meant for the priests.
And Jesus gives us then this principle
that he's been building up to.
Verse 27,
the Sabbath was made for man
and not man for the Sabbath.
In other words, regulations,
man-made rules that don't lead
to the purpose of the Sabbath
need to be removed.
And what is the purpose of the Sabbath?
If it's made for man
and man is not made for it,
it is meant to give life.
It's meant to sustain and encourage.
It's meant to give rest.
It's meant to protect people
from working too much.
And so what Jesus wants
is then to honor this greater principle,
the principle of life.
Look, this is what's behind the law.
Yes, I know the speed limit is 65.
And this woman needs to get to the hospital.
Yes, I know.
In your minds,
technically they're reaping on the Sabbath.
And they are being given life.
They're being sustained
by what they're doing,
picking these heads of grain.
And then chapter 3, verse 4,
this next story.
We have these two twin stories
that go together.
Jesus clarifies, verse 4,
what it means that the Sabbath
was made for man,
not man for the Sabbath.
He tells them,
is it lawful on the Sabbath
to do good or to do harm,
to save life or to kill?
In other words,
the Sabbath has a purpose.
Its purpose is to do good
and to save life.
That is the governing principle.
That is what matters
more than anything else.
That's what a good police officer understands.
He understands the greater principle of the law
when he stops a husband
who's speeding
to take his wife to the hospital.
That's what these Pharisees
are meant to understand.
There is something greater
and more important
and more powerful at work.
The law does not exist for itself.
It points to something good.
It points to a God
who wants to give his people life.
Sometimes the ultimate goal
that we want is impossible
within the certain guidelines.
So in one of his books,
General Stanley McChrystal
tells the story
of how at one time
the Pentagon,
looking to limit risk,
mandated that every soldier
leaving a secure base
in both Afghanistan and Iraq
wear body armor.
Sounds like a great idea, right?
Everyone's safe.
Everyone wears body armor.
Well, they find out quickly
that that's not helpful.
Unfortunately,
wearing protective gear
simply wasn't always realistic.
Many activities,
including climbing
Afghanistan's towering mountains,
were literally impossible
in the heavy armor.
To accomplish their missions,
soldiers would now have to assume
both the normal risks of combat
and the added risk of disobedience.
In other words,
they couldn't keep the rule
and honor the ultimate purpose
and goal of the mission.
The same thing here
is true of the Pharisees.
They have missed
the goal and mission
and purpose
of the Sabbath.
The Pharisees are lying in wait.
It tells us
at the beginning of chapter 3,
they want Jesus
to do something wrong
so they can catch him.
They are like someone
watching soldiers
to see them
take off their body armor
so that they can catch them
doing something wrong.
And they've completely
missed the point, right?
They are not interested
at all in the mission.
Accomplishing the mission
at times
required removing armor.
For Jesus,
accomplishing the mission,
honoring the Sabbath,
requires healing this man.
This is what it means
to honor the principle.
This is what it means
to give and love life.
And so this reminds us
of priorities.
When we look at God
and his law,
there are big things
that trump little things.
Sometimes the heart
and the spirit of the law
is more important
than the letter of the law.
Sometimes you can't keep
the letter of the law
and honor its heart.
There are major rules
that win over minor regulation.
For the Pharisees,
the letter of the law
is more important
than its purpose.
The mercy is more important
than red tape.
The good of people
is what matters.
And so if there is a principle
that's meant to be
behind the law,
if there's a greater value
we're supposed to honor,
the question for us
as we come to this passage
is this,
what is the principle
behind the Sabbath?
What is the principle
behind the idea
that God has asked
and commanded his people
to take one day a week
for rest?
Well, the principle,
as Jesus gives us here,
is that Sabbath
is a day of life.
It's a day that's meant
to give us life.
It's a day that's supposed
to restore us.
When Jesus tells us
at the end of chapter 2
that he's Lord of the Sabbath,
he's saying,
I'm the one who makes the rules.
I'm the one who's in charge here.
I am going to restore the Sabbath,
not destroy the Sabbath.
I'm going to restore it,
not destroy it.
I'm going to make the Sabbath
great again.
I'm going to make it
life-giving and good.
And so the Pharisees' temptation
is to make this
into a day of rules, right?
They have missed the point.
They're making it into something
that it's never meant to be.
As we come,
as people who live
in Colorado Springs
in 2021,
our temptation typically
is not to make it
into a day of rules.
Our temptation
is to make it into nothing,
to make it into just another day
of work or consumption.
But if the Sabbath
is made for man
and not man for the Sabbath,
the Sabbath is meant
to save us from ourselves.
It's meant to save us
from ourselves.
The Pharisees here
have a negative vision
of the Sabbath.
Jesus has a positive vision.
The Pharisees have
completely missed the point.
They don't care
about the mission at all.
They're just interested
in following the rules.
And so if that's the case,
what is the mission?
The mission that God
has given to the Sabbath
is that it's a day
of life and rest.
When we look at
the Ten Commandments
and what it tells us
about the Sabbath,
when we look at the ideas
throughout the Old Testament,
there's two things
that stand out.
First,
the Sabbath is meant
to be a pause from work.
Okay,
it's a pause from work.
Second,
the Sabbath is meant
to be a pause
from consumption.
It's a pause from work
and a pause from consumption.
So we'll take those in order.
Pause from work.
I asked you guys this
when we looked at the Sabbath
in Nehemiah chapter 13
back in 2019.
What do you call someone
who works seven days a week?
A slave.
Jesus gives the Sabbath.
Yeah,
you can call him a workaholic.
In a biblical sense,
it's a slave.
The Israelites
are given the Sabbath
as God's gift
as they're leaving Egypt.
Guess how many days a week
they worked in Egypt?
Seven days.
God says,
I'm not a slave master.
You're my children.
Work six days.
Take a day of rest.
And so it's rooted
in God's love
for his people.
You are not in Egypt anymore.
Of course,
you would think
we'd accept this
and receive it
as something good, right?
And yet it's hard.
It's hard,
the Sabbath,
because it requires us
to actually trust in God.
We're working only six days.
There's a trust
that God's going to
still provide for us
even if we don't work
the seventh day.
There's a trust
that we're not alone
in this world.
We don't have to do everything.
God is a good
and loving Father
who means to give to us.
He means to provide for us
and care for us.
It is his gift for us.
It's also,
as I mentioned
during our time of offering,
it's part of
combating the love of money.
It's part of trusting God.
And I would say
for us in this culture,
it's part of reminding ourselves
that we're human.
we don't exist
just to work.
We don't exist
simply as people
who are part
of a global economy.
No,
we exist even more importantly
as people
who are loved by God
and belong to God.
We exist as people
who are given rest
that we can enjoy
and flourish in.
We are people
who have boundaries
and limits
that give us freedom.
You are not a machine.
You're not a slave.
There is freedom
that God gives his people.
Part of the freedom
that we have in Christ
is freedom to know
that we can rest
and it's okay.
God is still holding
the world together.
He's still holding
our lives together.
He hasn't forgotten us.
Sabbath was not made
man was not made
for the Sabbath
but the Sabbath
for man.
Okay,
that's our pause
from work.
There's also a pause
from consumption.
This was the emphasis
when we looked
at Nehemiah chapter 13.
You'll remember
Nehemiah was incensed
but there were
these people
who were trying
to set up their booths
in the city of Jerusalem
on the Sabbath day.
There were sellers
coming in
who wanted to have commerce.
This also is something
that's helpful
to reconnect us
to reality
and insanity.
So this is the water
that we swim in
so we don't realize it.
There is something
insane
and inhuman
about a 24-7 economy.
There is something
insane
and inhuman
to the 24-7
economic cycle.
Now stock markets,
they do still close.
Stores do not.
Remember our greater
principle of the Sabbath
is that it would give life.
It gives life to us
in this sense.
You are a human.
You are not just a consumer.
You can pause.
You can live life
outside of the economic cycle
for one day a week.
The economic cycle,
by the way,
would love nothing more
than for you to exist
as its slave.
There's a reason
that Amazon gives you
one-click purchasing.
It's not because
they want your freedom.
Okay?
They want you
to serve them.
We might say
that man was not made
for purchasing,
but purchasing
was made
for man.
And so when we halt
our economic lives,
we remember
that there's something
greater and more beautiful
about life
than just what we can enjoy
and consume.
We have a greater hope
than what we're meant to buy.
Also,
part of the purpose
in the Old Testament,
this is less true today.
We don't live in Israel.
We don't live in a theocracy.
Part of the goal
was to actually give rest
to those
who are the poorest.
Now,
the same is true today
who has the least flexibility
of their work schedule.
Often people
who work minimum wage jobs,
right?
I'll give you an example.
It's not a Sunday example,
but Thanksgiving
is coming up.
Used to be
stores were closed
on Thanksgiving.
Now,
they'll open
on Thanksgiving.
Now,
that's not directly
related to the Sabbath,
but go with me.
I'm making a point here.
What does it mean
that stores are open
on Thanksgiving?
Well,
if you're a rich person,
I guess you can shop.
What if you're a poor person
who works a minimum wage job?
Can't enjoy Thanksgiving
with your family?
That was part
of the purpose
of the Sabbath
in the Old Testament,
to give a break
to slaves,
to give a break
to the lowest portions
of society.
That's why
when we read
our Confession of Faith,
it said,
also give rest
to your manservant
and your maidservant.
It's saying,
this exists
for people
who are otherwise
going to be crushed
by the economic system.
It is meant
to give life
to people
who have the least option
of a voice.
Okay?
So there's this vision
for society
that the Bible
is giving us.
Obviously,
it's not something
that's going to exist
in the world today.
We live in this
24-7 economy.
We are not going
to stop it.
We can still
retreat from it.
We can still
be reminded
that we are
humans
more than consumers.
And so,
application for us
is we want
the Sabbath
to be something
that's good
and life-giving.
We want to acknowledge
Jesus' principle here
that it's meant
to give life,
that it's made
for man,
not man for it.
Principle one,
take a day off
from work.
If something
can wait
until Monday,
do it on Monday.
If you can do it
on Saturday,
do it on Saturday.
Remember,
I am not a slave.
I don't belong
to the economy.
I participate in it,
I can enter into it,
I can also pull out of it.
Application two,
take a pause
from the non-stop
economic cycle.
If you can buy it
on Saturday,
buy it on Saturday.
If you can wait
until Monday,
wait until Monday.
You are not
Amazon's slave.
You are not
the slave
of whatever store
chooses to be open.
No,
you exist
for something
better and greater
than that.
By the way,
you want to be a rebel?
It is an act
of rebellion
in this world
to withdraw
from that
for one day a week.
It is an act
of rebellion
to say,
I am more
than just a consumer.
It is an act
of rebellion
to say,
I am not defined
by what I purchase
and what I enjoy.
I am defined
by something greater.
I am defined
by the fact
that I belong
to God.
He is a good father.
He gives me rest
and life.
Kids,
I want you to imagine
for a second,
what if your parents
told you,
you know what,
you have to take
a day off
from chores
and homework.
You can't do that
on Sunday.
What would you think
of parents like that?
Those are terrible parents.
That sounds really lousy.
You have to take
a day off
from homework
and chores?
Those are some
real legalistic parents.
They must not
like you very much.
No!
That is a life-giving parent.
That is a parent
who wants you
to have boundaries
in your life.
That is a parent
who wants you
to be able to rest
and pause.
I want you to take
this a step further.
What if your parents
told you,
hey, we know
that mom and dad
are really busy
with many things
and sometimes
we don't spend
a lot of time with you.
But we are going
to take one day
a week when we're
not busy
and we're going
to rest
and we are going
to spend time
together as a family.
What would you think
of parents like that?
They sound like
awful legalistic parents
to me.
No!
These are parents
who are taking a pause
to invest
in their children.
These are parents
who want life
for their family.
The same is true
for us as children
of God.
He wants us
to pause
and spend time
with Him.
In some principles here,
the Sabbath gives us life.
It gives us freedom
to rest.
It protects us
from ourself.
It protects us
from slavery.
Jesus doesn't just
tell us, however,
that it was made
for life.
He tells us something more
in verse 28
of chapter 2.
The Son of Man
is Lord
even of the Sabbath.
In other words,
He is the one
who gives us life.
He is the one
who gives us rest.
He is the one
who wants us
to know
that we are fully human,
that we can pause
from the insanity
of the world
around us.
And so Jesus
is telling the Pharisees,
you are missing
the heart of the Sabbath
and you are missing
who I am.
You are missing
both at the same time.
I'm the Lord
of the Sabbath,
so I'm so far up
the chain of command
it's actually laughable
that you would question
me about this.
I have come
to give these people
life and rest.
And of course
as we know
of people who live
after Jesus has come,
this is meant
to point us
to a greater life
and a greater rest.
That we rest
not only from our work,
we also rest
knowing that God
has freed us
from the penalty
of the law.
He has freed us
from the power
of sin in our lives.
When Jesus came,
when He lived
a perfect life
on this earth,
the life that we
could not live,
when He died
a death,
the death
that we deserved,
He came
to give us
full and final freedom.
He came
to give us
rest.
He came to give us
rest from the guilt
of sin.
He came to give us
rest from feeling
like it is up to us
to restore
and heal this world.
Instead,
He came and said,
I am going to be
the one
who does the work
for you.
And so we rest
and enjoy life now
and we look forward
to a greater rest
and a greater life
in the future
when Jesus comes
back.
We have and hold
to both
of those things
and it's something
that Jesus earned
for us on the cross.
He earned
our rest.
He came and gave us
what we celebrate
in the fourth commandment.
So remember,
I told you that we
have two questions.
Who is Jesus?
How do we respond
to Him?
Who is Jesus?
He is the Lord
of the Sabbath.
He restores it
to its original purpose.
He gives people life.
He frees them
from the tyranny
of work.
He frees them
from the tyranny
of consumption.
How do we respond
to Him?
We receive,
we embrace
the rest
that He's given us.
We trust in Him.
We know that He's
going to provide
for us.
We know that we
can take
one day off a week
and it's going
to be okay.
God is going
to make sure
we have enough.
Now,
when most people
today think
about the Sabbath,
they probably think
immediately of Chick-fil-A.
They think of Chick-fil-A
because it's one
of the only stores,
them and Hobby Lobby,
that are still closed
on Sunday.
Many people,
of course,
think this is very quaint.
Many Christians
both love and hate
them for it.
Love them because
they're closed on Sunday.
Hate them because
they can't get
a chicken sandwich.
And in a sense,
Chick-fil-A is sort of
a piece of a past world,
right?
What you may not know,
though,
is that Chick-fil-A
is not always closed
on Sunday.
In fact,
there was a major
news article
back in 2017
because in December
of 2017,
there was a complete
blackout
at the Atlanta
International Airport.
So flights were
canceled.
And by the way,
if you know
the Atlanta Airport,
you know it's,
I think,
in terms of passengers,
not size,
it's the largest airport.
If you've been there,
you know it's chaotic.
It's like Denver.
You have to take a subway
to get around.
And so you can imagine
what happens
when that subway
doesn't work.
There's no power
and people can't
get on their flights.
It's total chaos.
City of Atlanta
didn't know what to do.
Chick-fil-A,
this was a Sunday,
by the way.
Chick-fil-A's in the airport.
If you're ever
in an airport on Sunday,
you know Chick-fil-A's closed.
What did Chick-fil-A
do that day?
Chick-fil-A opened up.
And they opened up
not to sell
anyone food.
They opened up
to give it away.
So Chick-fil-A,
on short notice,
called their employees.
They brought them in.
They started making food
and they started handing out
thousands of free meals
to people in the Atlanta airport.
And so they understood
what we talked about
at the beginning.
They understood
the law.
They understood
they valued closing on Sunday
and protecting their employees
and they knew
the heart behind the law.
They knew that it was meant
to bring life.
And so they knew
what Jesus tells us here.
The Sabbath is made for man,
not man for the Sabbath.
Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven,
we thank you
that you are a good
and gracious Father
who gives us rest.
You know what we need
even more than we do.
You don't want us
to be slaves,
but you've made us human
and you know
that we need rest.
We ask that you would
give us that rest
and you would remind us
ultimately of the rest
that we look forward to
in the future
and we enjoy
in part now
the rest from
the power of sin
in our lives
and the penalty
that we would have
without you.
We thank you
that we earn
all these things
not by ourselves,
but Jesus is the one
who earns them for us
and so we ask them
in his name.
Amen.
I invite you to stand
for our closing hymn.
Amen.