How should I act and live?
Matthew 12:1-14; Mark 2:23–3:6; Luke 6:1-11; John 5:1-15
Jesus came to this earth, not to do a brand new thing but to redeem us, to renew us, and bring us back to God’s original intentions for our lives. As we have studied, we have seen that Jesus has been doing miracles, but not simply to help people. Jesus was proving he has the authority over this world and we should live in it. Even the OT law was created for us to know how to live…
6:1 On a Sabbath, He [Jesus] passed through the grainfields. His disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
Luke 6:1-11
The Jewish leaders created a long list of things that were forbidden on the Sabbath so, when the disciples ate the grain, they were charged with reaping, threshing, and preparing food.
3 He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry— 4 how he entered the house of God, and they ate the sacred bread, which is not lawful for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests? [1 Samuel 21:1–6]
Every week 12 loaves, one for each Hebrew tribe, were baked as a sacrifice and only the priests were allowed to eat them but David and his small army of men were starving so the priest gave them the loaves to eat.
5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent? [Num 28:9–10]
6 But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here! 7 If you had known what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.
Matthew 12:1-14
27 Then He told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:23–3:6
5:1 After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. 3 Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
5 One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”
8 “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk!” 9 Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.
Now that day was the Sabbath, 10 so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It’s illegal for you to pick up your mat.”
14 After this, Jesus found him in the temple complex and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” 15 The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
John 5:1-15
6 On another Sabbath He entered the synagogue and was teaching…’
Luke 6:1-11
10 There He saw a man who had a paralyzed hand. And in order to accuse Him they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
The Pharisees had decided it was unlawful for a physician to practice on the Sabbath.
11 But He said to them, “What man among you, if he had a sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t take hold of it and lift it out?
12 A man is worth far more than a sheep, so it is lawful to do what is good on the Sabbath.”
Matthew 12:1-14
8 But He knew their thoughts and told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Get up and stand here.” So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do what is good or to do what is evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
Luke 6:1-11
5 After looking around at them with anger and sorrow at the hardness of their hearts, He told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.
Mark 2:23–3:6
Jesus was upset because the religious leaders were bible experts so they should know how God wants us to live but rather than base their faith on love, they chose hate. So, in order for us to avoid these same mistakes, we need to take a step back and remember…
1. God wants me to know “why”
“Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the Lord.”
Lamentations 3:40
Ex: You may have noticed that Jesus often told stories and part of the reason why he did this was to help people understand why we do things. In this way, his stories were like riddles that challenged his listeners to really think through what he was teaching and understand why.
Jesus did this with the Pharisees. They honored King David, so he showed them how David committed the same “sin” they accused the disciples of. When it came to healing a man, Jesus pointed them to the Law of Moses. Finally, Jesus explained the true intent of the Sabbath by quoting their very own prophet Hosea.
To avoid bad theology and sin, we are also expected to search out why we believe what we believe. This is always the next step in maturity whether you’re a child growing up or while you are learning about the things of God. To do well, we need to know “why.”
God wants us to be able to apply his word to our lives in every situation but the problem is Jesus never talked about cellphones, internet, or pornography. Jesus never drove a car, watched a movie, or voted in an election. So how do we do these things in a way that honors the Lord if we do not understand the reasons why God did what he did or said what he said? You must understand,
2. “Why” begins with Love
Love is the beginning for us. God is love and love is the foundation of “why” we do anything. Love is our purpose and it should drive us to action and sustain us during times of struggle. Love is how we should see the world. This is why Jesus told the Pharisees,
7 If you had known what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.
Matthew 12:1-14
It all begins with love because God wants us to have a life of love but we struggle with doing this because no one deserves it…but that includes you. No one deserves anything and yet God loves us anyway: that is mercy. Mercy is the foundation of our faith because mercy is love in action.
God so loved the world that he sent his son. This means even salvation is a gift we do not deserve. The beginning of our faith and all of creation, joy, good things, and life itself begin with love in action.
The Pharisees wrongly believed the rules were the foundation of their relationship with God, not love. This is why they didn’t care about the needs of others, they only cared about the rules. They didn’t understand that true followers of God cared about the welfare of others.
This is why Jesus told the story of David’s men and the sheep in the hole. The stories were chosen by Jesus to direct the Pharisees to the love of God because he knew the error in their theology came from the fact that they did not understand that faith and love are inseparable.
20 When you knock down the fruit from your olive tree, do not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left. What remains will be for the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow.
Deut 24:20-21
This is just one example. In the OT, farmers were commanded over and over again to leave portions of their fields as a sacrifice for the poor. This forced the poor to still work for their food which is good but it was free. The Pharisees knew this, they were just mad about it being done on the Sabbath which is why Jesus reminded them love was the reason for the Sabbath,
27 Then He told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
Mark 2:23–3:6
In the same way, when they were angry that Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, Jesus said,
12 A man is worth far more than a sheep, so it is lawful to do what is good on the Sabbath.”
Matthew 12:1-14
The Sabbath and the law were given to us out of God’s love, not our definition of love. Giving people what they want is not always loving. What people want can be evil because sometimes what people want goes against God’s will and this is what sin is, which is why God gave us rules to follow…
3. Being holy is becoming more like God
15 But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.
1 Peter 1:15-16
We were all made in the image of God. We are creators, leaders, and conquerors. Like God we take chaos and we force it to do our will but, in order to do these things well, we must be holy. This begins with doing things in the way God intended us to do them even though we may not understand “why” quite yet.
This begins with first trusting God and his goodness. We must know that God wants us to be the best we can be and it’s through doing what God commands that we begin to slowly learn, become more like him, and figure out how to do things right.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and punishes every son he receives...but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness.
Hebrews 12:6-10
Becoming a good person is great but people start to get angry when they realize being holy also means getting rid of sin in your life because we don’t like being told what to do but even the rules are given to us out of love.
“See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”
John 5:14
Jesus said this because he loved this man and we do this with our kids.
Before kids understand electricity, we tell them to not put forks in the light socket. Before they know what a real job is we tell them to do their chores. Before they understand lust, we tell them some things are inappropriate. We always give our kids rules before they understand why and the great thing is that when they are young, they listen because they trust us and our love them.
The problem is that over time they need to learn why. There comes a point in everyone’s life that we must move past simple obedience to understanding why we do what we do which brings us full circle. Jesus wants us to know why. The why begins with love and we learn more and more about why we do things by obeying and practicing what God commands out of love.
If we do not accept love as the goal and obey we will either worship the rules, like the Pharisees, or we will worship our own idea of “love”, like some many people today.
There is a reason why the church was called the middle path or the way. The reason is because the path grounded on rules and the path of false love are both simple and wide, but both deny God’s complete holiness. One ignores the love of Christ and the other worships an idol they call “love.” Both are evil and too simple.
What is God calling you to obey? What is it you don’t understand or that you just don’t want to do that God clearly says?
Pray
Comments