Son of Man, Lord of the Sabbath
Matthew 12:1-14
Harry Stoliker
March 15, 2009 EBC
Listen
Let's get right to the heart of the sermon really fast this morning. Here
is what is burning on my heart from this text this morning. I believe what's
going on here is summarized in one word: "authority". The
issue is authority. There is a battle going on about who has
the authority to control the lives of men, to control the way God is worshipped,
to control who interprets God's Word. This is critically important. The ultimate
correct answer is that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the King
who is and has established His Kingdom on earth is in control. That is the
theme I will develop.
Now the main application of this sermon is a quote from my devotional book
called The Godward Life. "Let us then, with trembling joy,
humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God." I struggled with this passage
all week, trying to listen to God's voice telling me what to speak on. I
couldn't get the deep theme of the text that I wanted and felt was there. Then in
my QT on Thursday it came to me. These two precious words "trembling joy"
make it all clear up. They almost sound contradictory, don't they! Usually,
when you are trembling, it isn't with joy but with something like fear. That
is why they caught my eye as I was reading about the absolute sovereignty
of God.
The context in which I discovered these words was a discussion
about how God is the reason you came into being. God is the reason you stay
in being. God decides why you have being and makes your being serve his
purpose. God is the governor of all the authorities who seem
so influential on earth. God alone has the authority to forgive sins. It
is folly to oppose God. It is utter wisdom to love God and draw near to him.
(Piper)
"Let us then, with trembling joy, humble ourselves under the mighty
hand of God." I don't know about you, but I need to learn to do this.
I need some more of this "trembling joy." What do I mean? Well,
the trembling part comes when you more deeply comprehend the majestic
sovereignty of God Almighty in Jesus Christ the King. The joy part
comes when you more deeply experience the never ending, covenantal love
of God of His people seen in Jesus Christ and poured out into
our hearts by the Holy Spirit. What a fantastic combination! Wouldn't
you quickly say that you need to get a deeper grasp on the absolute sovereignty
of Christ!? Wouldn't you say you need to be filled with a powerful joy
over the love of God in Christ!? I need times alone with God where
I am gripped with "trembling joy!" Turn to Isa. 6:1-7 for a
moment. There we see some real trembling joy going on. Isaiah saw a vision
of God's majesty, supremacy, and sovereignty. The whole temple started to tremble.
The joy came when he heard that his sins had been atoned for.
Now, let's see how this Sabbath controversy promotes our trembling joy in Christ.
Look at V.8 "For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Now, unless
you have done some studying about the phrase "Son of Man" and about
the topic of the "Sabbath" you really can't feel how big a bomb
this statement was when Jesus spoke it. If you were part of the culture of 1st
century Judaism, you would have been stunned / shocked
by it. In that culture, the Torah was the final authority. The words
of God through the 5 books of Moses, the Torah, were the standard of truth
in all of religious society. The Sabbath as described in Genesis-Deuteronomy
was a sacred, holy, God-ordained, unbreakable, unchallenged law from God.
It had been that was for around 1400 years. It was an identity marker
for the nation of Israel! No man could change anything about the Sabbath,
nor lessen the demands of the Sabbath. Any Sabbath violations were punishable
by death because the Sabbath was so holy and inviolable.
God created the Sabbath to make the people rest and worship. They were to
think about how God delivered them out of slavery in Egypt. The Sabbath
reminded them of deliverance. The Sabbath was a holy rest unto the LORD
(Ex. 16:23). It was given to the people by the LORD Himself, which is why
it was so holy. They had to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
through obedience to God's command not to do any work on it (Ex. 20:8). You
couldn't even start a fire in your house or pick up sticks on the Sabbath
(Ex. 35:3). The Sabbath also pointed to God's creation of all things.
Exodus 20:11 "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and
all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and made it holy." Anyone who profaned the Sabbath, that
is, made it unholy by violating its rules, was put to death (Ex. 31:14).
The Sabbath was also a sign of the old covenant to remind them it was God
who sanctified them. God chose them as a people, set them apart
for Himself in a holy covenant. Exodus 31:12-17 "And the Lord said
to Moses,"You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, 'Above all you shall
keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations,
that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. "14
You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it
shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from
among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh
day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the
Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of
Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations,
as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people
of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh
day he rested and was refreshed.' The point is clear: the Sabbath
points to God as Creator, as Deliverer and as Covenant Maker, so don't mess
with the Sabbath, just keep it!
In addition to the true biblical prohibitions of work on Sabbath,
the Pharisees had 39 categories of work that were prohibited according to
their human embellishments and traditions of how the Sabbath was to be kept.
These complicated and bogus human rules set the stage for a serious clash
between the Pharisees and Jesus. The last verse in our section shows how serious
the issue was to the Pharisees. Matthew 12:14 "But the Pharisees went out
and conspired against him, how to destroy him." Lest we get lost
here, the REAL ISSUE in Matt. 12 isn't the Sabbath per se. That is just the
flash point of their anger and hypocrisy. The conflict comes when
Jesus doesn't conform to their hypocrisy. Jesus uses the Sabbath controversy
to bring out the real issue. The REAL ISSUE in this passage is: "Who does
Jesus think He is!" Let's watch how this develops.
Vvs. 1-7 Jesus is defending his disciples from the Pharisees. They
saw the disciple take some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat
them as they walked along in the fields. The Sabbath-police kick into gear
and yell "Foul!" "Unlawful!" "Sabbath-breakers!" To them what the disciples did
constituted work on the Sabbath, the work of harvesting and threshing.
Jesus defends his men by using two examples from the OT of when people seemed
to break the Sabbath. First, David and his men in 1 Sam. 21:1-6.
David was fleeing from Saul with him men. They came to Ahimelech, the priest
at Nob and asked for food supplies. They were hungry and on the run.
The priest gave him the sacred Bread of the Presence. Leviticus 24 said only
priests could eat this highly symbolic bread. There were 12 loaves
of bread symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel. Fresh bread was put
out every Sabbath symbolizing God's constant presence with His chosen people.
What's the point that is being made here? The point is if David's position
as the Lord's anointed King, (even though on the lam) justified him
taking the Bread of the Presence from the tabernacle, and transgressing the letter
of the law, then certainly Jesus' position as Messiah justified him
allowing his disciples to eat grain on the Sabbath. Jesus is greater than King David.
Ceremonial law is set aside by the Greater David, Jesus. Jesus has even greater
authority than David!
V.5 The second example is about the priests who have to work
on the Sabbath. They were in the tabernacle and temple on the Sabbath making sacrifices,
doing their duty, performing work. So, technically, they violate the Sabbath
by working. But the point is that they are not bound by the Sabbath
law because of who they are. Temple service takes precedence over
the Sabbath. Similarly, because of who Jesus IS, he has authority over the Sabbath.
Again, Jesus answers them with a block-buster comment in V.6 "I tell
you that one greater than the temple is here." If the temple services themselves
were so important as to trump the Sabbath laws, then certainly Jesus had the
authority to allow his disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath because someone
greater than the temple was here! Jesus is seen as the 'new temple'
in the NT. Turn to John 2:19-22. Jesus was the true dwelling place
of God. He is the place we meet God. He is the place where true atoning sacrifice
took place. He is greater than the temple. The temple hid God from the people behind
the veil blocking off the Holy of Holies. Jesus was standing in front of them face
to face!
The Son of Man has authority that is greater than David, greater
than the temple, greater than the Sabbath law. Jesus favorite name for
Himself is Son of Man. It most assuredly is adopted from Daniel 7:13-14
where Daniel had a dream about the end of time. In the dream
a certain 'son of man' approaches the Ancient of Days
(who is God). Then it says of the son of man in V.14 "He was given authority,
glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped
him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom
is one that will never be destroyed." Almighty God gave the Son of
Man authority over billions of people and gave him a kingdom that will never
and can never be destroyed! If the Son of Man wasn't Himself God,
we would have two Gods and two kingdoms! How could God the Ancient of Days
give all this to God the Son of Man? Only if God the Son of Man was indeed
part of the Trinity!
Jesus loved to call himself The Son of Man! Jesus also said in John 5:22-23
"The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor
the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 25 "Truly, truly,
I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice
of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the
Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because
he is the Son of Man."
When Jesus was facing the high priest at the end of his life we see 3 titles
come out crystal clearly: the Christ, the Son of God,
and the Son of Man! Matthew 26:62-66 "And the high priest stood
up and said, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against
you?" But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you
by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." 64
Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see
the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven."
65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered
blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy.
66 What is your judgment?" They answered, "He deserves death."
They clearly realized that Jesus had made himself equal with God, thus he
blasphemed, according to them.
So, we can hear the Pharisees asking in Matt. 12:1-14 these questions: "Does Jesus
think He's in control of the Sabbath? Does Jesus think that He is greater
than the Sabbath? Doesn't Jesus realize it was God who established
this unchangeable Sabbath regulation? Does Jesus think he can ignore our modifications
and expansions of God's basic law of rest on the Sabbath? Does Jesus think
he is greater than King David? Did Jesus actually just say that "Someone
greater than the temple is here?!" (V.6). He sounds like he's referring to himself
as being greater than the temple! How could there be anything or anyone greater
than the temple, the very dwelling place of God? This is utterly appalling,
astonishing, inexcusable, rude, intolerable, unpardonable! It sounds like
he's putting himself on a par with Almighty God!"
If that is what they were thinking, and it most likely is, then they were
100% right! That was exactly what Jesus was saying when he said:
"The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath!"
In Vvs. 9-13 Jesus again proves that He is Lord of the Sabbath and
has authority to do what He wants on the Sabbath. He miraculously heals a
man with a shriveled hand to both correct the Pharisees' faulty understanding
of the Sabbath and to show His supreme authority.
OK, back to the sermon application…"Let us then, with trembling
joy, humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God." What I want is
this: I want many more experiences of Truth-driven, Truth-saturated, Christ-revealing
trembling joy! I want to gain an ever deeper grasp intellectually, spiritually,
experientially of the magnitude of the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.
I want that to make me tremble, tremble, tremble! And then I want to realize more
and more that this exhaustively sovereign King Jesus deeply loves me
and fills me with unspeakable joy!
Yes, one greater than David, greater than the temple, greater than the Sabbath,
greater than anything has come! Bless His Name.
Let's pray,
H.