 here at verse 23 chapter 2, I'll read to verse 28, we'll get into our study. And what we're looking at today is Jesus who is the Lord of the Sabbath. So beginning at verse 23 it happened that he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath and as they went, his disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? But he said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry? He and those with him, how he went into the house of God in the days of Abba Arthur, the high priest and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests and also gave some to those who are with him. He said to them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. So as we've been going through the Gospel of Mark, we've seen that Jesus is presently growing in fame. He's become very popular and many are beginning to follow him and many are listening to him. When Jesus was in a synagogue, he had cast a demon out of a man and the Bible tells us that when he did that the people were amazed and they had said, what is this? What new doctrine is this? Even demons obey him. The result we see in Mark 1.28 says immediately his fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee. After Jesus had healed Peter's mother-in-law, great amounts of people began to come to him. Mark 1.33 says the whole city was gathered together at the door of Peter's house. Later we saw how that Peter had told Jesus, everyone is looking for you and they were. Shortly thereafter, Jesus cleansed the leper, told him not to say anything but he disobeyed and the result was Jesus could no longer enter the city. That all happened in chapter 1. Chapter 2 continued in the same way. Jesus returned to the city of Capernaum. People heard that he was in Peter's home and the result was a crowd came and there was no room to receive them. Jesus revealed that he not only healed but he also cast out demons and forgave sins and as a result, as we've seen, religious opposition began to grow opposing him. So at this point, religious leaders are now unifying in rejection of Jesus Christ and his message. Now they have accused him of blasphemy and they did so because he had forgiven the paralytic of his sins. Remember in Mark chapter 2 verse 7 how they said, why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone? And then also they inferred that he was guilty of living an unholy life. You saw that in Mark 2 verse 16 where they said, how is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners? So today we're going to look at controversies that relate to the observation of the Sabbath. Verses 23, 3, 28 relate to physical labor being performed on the Sabbath and then in chapter 3 verses 1 through 5, those verses center on Jesus healing a crippled man again on the Sabbath. So let me lay a context so that you can understand what's taking place here in these two studies we're going to have because in reality these actually could be two separate studies that I'm combining into one. To understand I need to take a moment to develop what would be called a very basic concept of Shabbat or the Sabbath. Shabbat literally speaks of the ceasing of work. It speaks of inactivity or resting. All the way in the book of Genesis in chapter 2 verse 3 it says that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. So from the beginning the Lord declared the Sabbath to be a time of rest. It was a time of remembrance. When God gave the law of Moses God commanded the Jews to observe the Sabbath. In the book of Exodus chapter 20 verses 9 through 11 it says six days shall you labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work. You nor your son nor your daughter your man's servant nor your maid's servant nor your cattle nor your stranger that's within your gates for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hollowed it or sanctified set it apart. So it was set apart for the Jews in order that they would remember him on that day. Now I want you to know this and I'm going to develop a thought about this. It was a day that was set apart for Israel to reverence God and to rest from labor. It was intended to promote worship of God which produced love for God and love for others because when you love God the fruit is going to be that you love other people and that by the way is how we can know that we are Christians. In 1 John chapter 4 verse 20 and 21 it says if someone says I love God and hates his brother he's a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen how can he love God whom he has not seen. This commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also. So the Sabbath was intended to promote worship of God and the worship of God love is going to be for God but it's going to be also given to other people. It's going to be something that that reflects the reality that you know the Lord and so the Sabbath rest was intended to give people an opportunity to worship God and the fruit of such worship would be loving him and loving others and that is the purpose of gathering together in what we today call worship services. Worship services are intended to glorify God and unify people in the worship of him and any service that does not promote worship and spiritual unity is just a meeting. Over the centuries the Jewish religious leaders had observed the Sabbath that was in keeping with the commands that God had given to Israel and over time they had added their traditions to God's commandments concerning it. All in any kind of work imaginable became strictly forbidden. There's a book that I have it's called The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah it's written by a messianic Jewish man by the name of Alfred Adarshim and he wrote tailors didn't carry a needle for fear they might be tempted to sew. Clothing could not be washed or dyed fires could not be lit or extinguished baths could not be taken for fear water would fall on the floor and wash it you could not carry anything heavier than a dried fig chairs could not be moved because dragon them might make a furrow in the ground women didn't look into mirrors in the event that they might see a gray hair and pluck it out no that's not true they'd never do that false teeth could not be worn because they exceeded the weight limit that you were allowed to carry think about that one sick people were only allowed enough treatment to keep them alive because any treatment that could improve their condition was work so the result was the Sabbath became a time of frustration and stress the people became tired of bearing a yoke of man-made oppressive regulations because the Sabbath became a burden a burden that was placed on them because of the Pharisees the Sabbath now one final word I added this because I've been asked this and I thought well it'd be worth taking just a moment to to say something about we've been asked why we worship on Sunday and not Saturday I remember years ago now many years ago doing a doing a Sunday morning service I was that's when we're in the chapel before we built this sanctuary and a lady walked up to me after the service and said to me this is my first time here and the Lord has placed something on my heart to tell you I said okay she says this is from the Lord I said well let's hear what he has to say I'm used to hearing that from Marie but if you want to say it okay she said the Lord is doing a good work here but God says that you need to meet on the Sabbath Saturday and he'll do a greater work and I said no he didn't he didn't say that I said you're saying that it's because the Bible doesn't teach that and let me share with you what the Bible says basically about this okay why do we worship on Sunday and not Saturday well the brief answer is that the law of the Sabbath is not for the church the law of the Sabbath is for Israel how do we know that well Exodus chapter 31 verse 13 speak also to the children of Israel saying surely my Sabbaths you shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you the Sabbath meeting on the Saturday is actually a covenant relationship that God has with the children of Israel and not the church the church observes Sunday as the day of rest because Jesus was resurrected on Sunday and it was very early the practice of the early church in 1st Corinthians 16 verse 2 on the first day of the week each one of you should set aside a sum of money and keeping with your income saving it up so that when I come no collections will have to be made on the first day of the week and that first day of the week became known as the Lord's day in Revelation chapter 1 verse 10 I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet so Christians observe a day of rest and attend services because we've been saved and the early church met on the first day of the week for God's word and for worship we met on the first day of the week because that's the day Christ was resurrected and when the church would gather there was a purpose it says in Acts 242 that the church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer and so when the church gathers together the church is intended to be taught to love God and love others remember that when when Jesus was approached and asked what is the greatest commandment in the law he said to love the Lord thy God with all your heart so strength in mind he said this is a first and great commandment there's a second like unto it and you shall love your neighbor as yourself upon these two commands hang all the law and the prophets and so when the when the when the people would gather for a rest they actually rested then they began to meet and when they would meet on Shabbat on the Sabbath it was for teaching of the word of God it was for fellowship but it was also to encourage them to love one another see when you transform people from within by the word of God and power of the Spirit and they begin to love one another that's intended to be something God uses to reach a nation it's that's what will change nations and so when we gather together on a Sunday or a Wednesday we gather together so that we might together get into the word of God and worship him so that when we walk out of this this place here on Sunday or Wednesday or whenever we gather our lives are being changed because the way that this nation is going to be changed is one person at a time and I think that what we've done today and I'll say this quickly is that we have forgotten that and the church by and large seeing the danger has gotten caught up so much with the danger that they're forgetting to feed the sheep and it's the sheep that are going to go out and deal with the danger years ago some of you might remember something was called Y2K you guys remember that yeah I used to say it do okay but Y2K I'm sorry that's an old one that's an obviously old Y2K and we were being told that all of the you know everything was going to change because computers and things are going to fail and this and that and so the church began to run around like chicken little saying that the sky is falling and the church has the tendency of doing that we get caught up with the moment and then somehow we're going to fix it they're doing certain things which I think we have to be careful that we don't get caught up so much in the fixing of things because we're afraid of what's going on and forget that the primary cause that we have been created to do or for is to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ because indeed if things are going down and in many ways we see that they do and continue to do so and historically have then what we ought to be caring about is their souls because where are they going to end up where's their faith what's going to happen to them and so for me the primary thing has always been teaching the word of God yes we see the things that are going on yes we ought to be taking care of these things yes we ought to be involved in whatever way that we may and the Holy Spirit leads us to yes we should be voting yes we should be telling our friends you know to be aware of the times yes all of that is a yes with me but the number one thing is the gospel of Jesus Christ because that's what changes people's lives and that's what we have to understand and so when we gather on a Sunday morning it isn't so that I can give you an update and all the things that are going on in the world because you have the ability to see yourself what I'm supposed to do as a pastor teacher is to teach the word of God because God gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry and so as we gather together and worship God we'll love one another love other people and we can transform a nation and that's how it works and when the church would gather or the the Jews during the time of Christ would gather together and they would have their synagogue meetings it was intended that they might learn to love God and love other people that's what it was supposed to do that's what the teaching of the word was intended to equip them to do and so Jesus is there and it's a Sabbath day it's a Shabbat it's a Sabbath day and Jesus is there in the synagogue and what's going to take place now is that the Lord is going to be giving some insight into what he has just been speaking about because he had just spoken concerning new wine he had said in verse 22 of the same chapter he said no one puts new wine into old wineskins or else the new wine bursts the wineskins and the wine is spilled and the wineskins are ruined but new wine must be put into new wineskins he's going to be sharing with him a bit about that and so in verse 23 it says it happened that as he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath it says that they as they went his disciples began to pluck the the heads of grain and so when you cross-reference this with other passages that speak of the same event Matthew chapter 12 verse 1 tells us that his disciples were hungry so they began to pick the grain now immediately you might be thinking well they're stealing aren't they I mean they're going through and they're taking things from the from the fields that don't belong to them but they weren't stealing according to the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy 23 verse 25 it says if you enter your neighbor's grain field you may pick kernels with your hands but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain and so they could go in and they could do this it was within the confines of the law why because they were hungry and they could feed themselves you see to harvest the grain would be stealing but to pluck the grain was allowed to take a few heads of grain as you walked was allowed if you were hungry and this is one of the ways that the Lord provided for the people and that would include him providing for those who were poor in the viticus 19 verse 10 it says you shall not glean your vineyard neither shall you gather every grape of your vineyard you shall leave them for the poor and stranger I am the Lord your God and that was how the Lord would minister to those who were in need somebody didn't go and pick the grain and give it to them those who were hungry went in and on their own they were to pick the grain and feed themselves well as this is taking place the Pharisee see this notice in verse 24 the Pharisee said to him look why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath so immediately they bring a question now earlier we saw how the Pharisees had asked the disciples about why Jesus was doing something but now they approach him personally and they want he want they want to know something about what the disciples are doing what they're doing is they're accusing the disciples of threshing grain threshing grain is unlawful on Shabbat in Luke chapter 6 verse 1 it says one Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain to rub them in their hands and to eat the kernels so they believed that the rubbing of the grain to remove the husk and shells that was threshing they thought they were reaping they thought they were sifting they thought they were threshing winnowing and they thought they were preparing a meal and this all broke their traditional interpretation of keeping the Sabbath now the law never said that this is the tradition and their tradition was equal to what God's word said the actual charge is simple your disciples have broken our regulations and traditions well Jesus responds in verse 25 he says to them have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry he and those with him how he went into the house of God in the days of abbey after the high priest and ate the showbread which is not lawful to eat except for the priests and also gave some to those who were with him have you never read now this is very similar to what he had said to uh a little bit earlier he had said uh something similar to the Pharisees when he was eating with with the sinners and in Matthew 9 13 he had said to them go and learn what this means I desire mercy and not sacrifice so when he says have you never read that's a way of saying you know the facts but you don't understand you don't know the meaning you are teachers of others but you haven't learned the lesson yourself you profess to be experts on scripture but you don't understand its meaning so rather than arguing about their religious traditions notice Jesus takes them to the the word of God you see they were using his teachings to bolster their arguments and so Jesus rebukes them and 2 Timothy 3 16 and 17 it says all scripture is God breathe and is useful for teaching for rebuking for correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work and so he refers to the scripture he doesn't just argue with them about their tradition he says have you never read do you not understand and he speaks concerning David now that David was fleeing from King Saul this is found in the Old Testament book of 1st Samuel chapter 21 David and his man had fled to a city it was called the city of knob that's where the tabernacle the temporary dwelling place of the Lord was and David and his men had no food and they were hungry so to feed them he and his men were allowed to eat what is called the show bread the show bread is also referred to in scripture as the bread of the presence these were 12 loaves of bread they were baked weekly and they represented the 12 tribes of Israel in Exodus 29 32 it says at the entrance to the tent of meeting Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket they are to eat these offerings by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration no one else may eat them because they are sacred so the loaves of bread were put in a place called the holy place and they were set on a table they symbolized Israel and its dependence on God to provide for their life and their nourishment and the bread of the presence stood as an act of thanksgiving to God for providing for the nation it was placed on a golden table and the 12 loaves would remain a week and then would be replaced by freshly baked bread and at that time the priests could eat the loaves that had been replaced so Jesus made it clear David and his men were not priests but were allowed to eat the bread and this is because the men were in need and exceptions can be made when somebody is in need notice in verse 27 he said to them the Sabbath was made for men and not man for the Sabbath God allowed the ceremonial law to be violated in order that David and his men might be fed human need is more important than man made traditions therefore verse 28 the son of man is also lord of the Sabbath now when saying this Jesus announced he had authority over the Jewish religion he knew the scriptures and they were arguing with the one who was the center of them it's kind of like if somebody was trying to tell you about you and they didn't know that they were speaking of you say you wrote a book there's no picture of you on the book and they read your book and then they're explaining to you what you wrote and what you meant in that book when you're talking about your life and they're starting to argue with you about it they're saying well you know blah blah blah and you say no that's not no no no you don't know I read the book and the book says this this isn't that but it's about you you're the one who wrote it and it's that's what they're doing Jesus Christ is the inspirer of the scripture and they're trying to argue with the one who gave the word it makes absolutely no sense at all and so when Jesus is speaking to them Jesus is saying something that's very powerful he's saying that he is the lord of the Sabbath he knew the scriptures and they were arguing with the one who's the center room because it's God who gave the commandments and God gave the command about the Sabbath so to to claim to be Lord of the Sabbath is to claim deity is what he was doing and so when he made that statement it was very powerful this phrase the Lord of the Sabbath is to make a claim for deity even as earlier he had forgiven a man of his sins and he was claiming to be God he's doing it again by referring himself to himself as the Lord of the Sabbath and so we pick up in verse one of chapter three and he entered the synagogue again and man was there who had a withered hand so they watched him closely whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so they might accuse him and he said to the man who had the withered hand step forward then he said to them is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil to save life or to kill and they kept silent and when he had looked around at them with anger being grieved by the hardness of their hearts he said to the man stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored as whole as the other now Jesus is entering the synagogue it's an unnamed city notice that it's more than likely Capernaum and now he's going to give to us an illustration to the fact that he's the Lord of the Sabbath notice verse one there's a man with a withered hand that word withered speaks of crippled or paralyzed and he's there in the service for some reason Luke wants to make sure that we know in chapter six verse six that it's the man's right hand that is crippled now when it says it is withered withered is a word that actually would be used to speak of atrophy so some scholars say that the word indicates that it was a result of an injury and so there's this man he's in the synagogue service and notice verse two they're watching him closely whether he would heal him on the Sabbath when it says they watched him that word watch means to observe closely with evil intent they're looking for something bad they're watching to see if he actually does something good on the Sabbath isn't that interesting I mean they're watching him closely with evil intent to see if he does something good now Jesus was so famous for doing good that people began to try to catch him doing it and that's going on that goes on all the time I mean it even goes on now just to just to think of his out loud watching to see if someone does something good to accuse him for being bad that's kind of like what what's going on with nurses today being watched in case they do good many work throughout the pandemic without masks and now they're being watched I find that I gotta be careful with this I shouldn't have made that note to myself because it really bothers me it bothers me that people who are doing good are now being told that what they're doing if they don't put on a mask is bad it makes no sense these are people who are willing to put their lives on the line to care for people and now they're being penalized I don't know I don't know if we have any any nurses in this room I don't know if we do or not I know my son is one and I'm very proud of him in the Lord for for that and for all the work that he's done on behalf of other people but if we have any of those who are here any nurses medical practitioners we as a church just want to tell you we love you and we're grateful for the work that you've done I mean I don't understand this because they're being watched now and and and they're watched being watched to see if they do anything good and and they're trying to find him in violation of breaking the law of the Sabbath there's a man he's in need Jesus is there and he sees this and they knew that Jesus wouldn't avoid ministering to a hurting man well you see unless a person's life was in the balance the most you could do was basic care doing anything more was considered working it violated their tradition now Luke tells us that Jesus delivered a woman with the spirit of infirmity on the Sabbath the ruler of the synagogue became incensed when Jesus did so it's found in Luke 13 verse 14 and it says he was indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath so the synagogue rulers said to the people there are six days for work so come and be healed on those days not on the Sabbath they looked at the healing as an act of work now you need to know that to violate the Sabbath there was a crime punishable by death Exodus 31 14 says observe the Sabbath because it's holy to you anyone who desecrates must be put to death whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people this is going to be a charge they can bring against him before the Jewish religious court and Jesus knew it he knew he was being watched and he didn't back down Matthew 12 10 tells us that they asked him is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath to accuse him and then in verses 11 and 12 of Matthew 12 it says that he said to them if any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath will you not take hold of it and lift it out how much more valuable is a person than a sheep therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath Jesus knew that he was being watched but he didn't back down why because it is right to do good on the Sabbath when everything had been shut down and there were statements being made you can't gather together and we as a church observe the the rule that we should not be gathering and we did it for several weeks and then finally one day I was here and people started driving up because from from the very beginning when we returned from Israel it was the next week that everything was two weeks everything was shut down and I told my staff I said you know what we're going to have to observe this because we don't know what's going on we don't know what's happening I I'm not a doctor and we don't have any news and they're still trying to find out what's really going on with this this virus and all I said I'm not willing to put our our sheep in jeopardy I'm not willing to do that need more information and so what we did is we we followed the ordinance and we we stopped meeting but that doesn't mean I stopped because it didn't I started I kept coming to the church I came on Sunday you know didn't put it on Facebook didn't tell people where I was we just came in some of my staff were here also on Sundays for several weeks I would just come and when people would pull up on the in the driveway they'd see us they were surprised they would actually come to give their gifts we had a goppy boxes out and the people came to give their gifts and and when they came we had opportunity to visit with them and and so after a few weeks it was really hot and and about 150 or so people um did a little parade through through the the church and and uh and we were waving at them because they they knew we were here and so I remember just looking at them as they climbed off the car and they were just a crowd of people in the parking lot and and I thought you know um I don't like them out here in the heat so we took them into the into the the chapel and we said let's go on into the chapel and they all spaced you know apart and everything and Jared was here I said Jared lead them in some worship and so Jared led some worship and I went up and gave a devotion and and so that was you know a few weeks into this pandemic and the next week we were back and they showed up again before you know we had people sitting here in the sanctuary and Jared would come and he I didn't publish it I didn't let everybody know I wasn't shaking my fist in the face of the governor or the president I was simply saying these are sheep they need to be fed I and their pastor I love them and I'm going to feed them that's what we do that's what pastors because you have to do you have to do what is right what is right no I wasn't writing letters to the press they know by the way come and arrest me you know because they were threatening those things and that's when I made John the pastor the church in case in case somebody had to do time he knows how to do time the short stretch for him you got to do what is right you have to that's what Christians do never put you I will never put you to my knowledge to the best of my ability as a pastor I would never put you into any position of jeopardy to satisfy my anger that I can have over what I consider to be the unfair regulations that have been placed on the church in order to stifle what God wants to do but you know what God is greater than any regulation that man can ever put because here we are right now there are people in different countries watching us right now because we just went online and we took the gospel message online and we went on seven days a week and we're reaching people every day of the week so the COVID which was meant for evil God has intended it for good we've been able to reach more and more and more people through it but you have to do what is right whatever your conscience permits within the confines of what scripture and the spirit leads you to do and so Jesus was being observed and he was being watched to see whether he would do something good whether he would heal somebody on the Sabbath and it is always lawful Jesus said to do good on the Sabbath well notice verse 3 he said to the man who had the withered hand he said step forward he took the offensive he's about to do something and it's going to do it in plain view he knew that this kind of thing would eventually be used against him and John in chapter 18 verses 19 and 20 it says the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching and Jesus said I've I have spoken openly to the world I I've always taught in synagogues or at the temple where all the Jews come together I said nothing in secret so Jesus knew this would eventually be used against him and so he asked the question in verse 4 he said is it lawful on on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil to save life or to kill but they kept silent is it right to do good on any other day and if it is then why is it wrong to do good on the Sabbath because doing good is really what believers are supposed to do and Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 12 it says I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and to do good while they live in 1 Peter 2 15 it says it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men well see Jesus says is it lawful to do good or to do evil to save or to kill what is it so they kept silent the question really is which of us is doing good me if I heal him or you if you keep him from being healed it's so revealing to note that they knew Jesus could and would heal this man and even though they knew it they still would have kept the man crippled sometimes hardness of heart blinds you they were calloused and they were hardened notice in verse 5 he looked around at them with anger being grieved by the hardness of their hearts and he said to the man stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored as whole as the other now this is interesting how they now it's put he looked around when it says he looked around at them that's literally saying he surveyed the room he he looked from one corner to the other is what he was doing surveying and you can picture Christ as he slowly looks at them one by one as his eyes for just a moment lock with those people you know when somebody surveys the room like when I teach when I teach I've had this happen to me before as someone sitting being taught it's one thing when that when the when the teacher is looking around he does a quick glance right it's one thing that's another thing when he locks eyes with you gets kind of weird it feels kind of odd because you begin to think is you know because you'll you'll be talking and then he just rests on you for a minute and it's like you get you get to feel weird I've had that happen before where the the speakers and for some reason maybe he just felt like looking at me because I'm so cute I don't know but he stared at me and it's just like I feel like wow this feels odd so when Jesus was doing that picture that for a moment he's looking at them one by one and each one of them would be withering under his gaze as he's looking at him because he's angry he's angry there's no doubt that his face revealed to them that he was angry this unbelief of the Pharisees angered him and grieved him so it says here that he looked at them with anger and I look that up now the word anger why did you use that word the word anger here is a justifiable passion and hatred for something so he is justifiably angry and hated something and it says he was also grieved that word grieved means to be moved by grief and sympathy to sorrow at someone to be anguished he was angry and he was grieved he was grieved because they were rejecting the only way to salvation and John 5 24 most assuredly I say to you he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life in rejecting him they were placing themselves under condemnation in John 3 36 John the Baptist said whoever believes in the sun has eternal life but whoever rejects the sun will not see life for God's wrath remains on him what is it that bothered him hardness the hardness of the hearts that word hardness literally and I didn't make this one up the word hardness original in the original language speaks of stupidity it speaks of callousness and stubbornness a stupidity a stupid callousness the word heart spoke of their thoughts and feelings he was grieved and angered by their callous thoughts and feelings it's the same kind of hardness their ancestors had when they were freed from Egypt instead of rejoicing at the freedom they were given they rebelled in the wilderness the writer of Hebrews in chapter 3 verse 15 says as as has just been said today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion so two things triggered his response of righteous anger and grief one is their fault finding their evil thoughts the silence at his questions and second their hardness of people's pain due to their religious legalism they would rather this man remain crippled than to break their traditions once again they were old wine skins not open to the wine of grace now I was sharing last week concerning the new wine and I didn't refer to Luke's concluding verse because in Luke chapter 5 verse 39 he had Jesus said no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new for he says the old is better so the old wine speaks of the old practices of life the religious life of the Jews of his day that included the opposite observation of Moses's law the dietary rules a sacrificial system and Jesus brought a fresh way of worship because he was fulfilling the requirements of the law in Matthew 5 17 it says do not think I've come to abolish the law or prophets I haven't come to abolish them but to fulfill them and the Pharisees didn't desire what was new for them the old was to be preferred the problem with that way of thinking was they chose legalism over love and their willful choice to reject grace and mercy grieved and angered Christ doing so they chose to live without compassion and they end up in final judgment that kind of thinking closes the door of grace for those who would enter in when I first got saved and and and all there was a time when when people had long hair I had longer when the guys had long hair and that was I've shared this before but I'll say this very quickly that there was there was a church in I could tell you the name of the church but I won't it was in another state and they had it was a very large church and and I remember reading about this church because I became interested immediately in the life of the church and all and I was reading about this one particular church that that when a hippie got saved they had a barber on staff so when the hippie got saved the first thing they did after praying to receive the Lord was take him into a room and cut his hair off and so there was this legalism that was very entrenched in the church when I got saved at that time and then when I went into ministry in the in the late 70s I was an assisting pastor and we rented a particular church and we wanted we it was a seventh day church they would meet on they would meet on Saturdays and left the the church open on Sunday and so we were able to to to rent the church but they would not allow us to have on the stage area they would not allow us to have electric guitars and drums and the reason was they said because that that was unholy instruments there were there were I don't know if I should tell you this but it's in its history this I don't know if you know this or not some of you may already know this others may not but you may not know this it was the music that we played as Calvary Chapel Ministries and others that played the similar kind it was called voodoo music did you has anybody ever heard that some of you have it was called voodoo music isn't that trippy voodoo music why voodoo because they said the drumbeat would put you into a hypnotic state then you could be controlled by the speaker it was I think the Greek word is it was crazy it was crazy because you could have drums and guitars in the fellowship hall we would do outreaches in a fellowship hall but we could not have electric guitars you could have string guitars you couldn't have you know acoustic but you could not have electric and you could not have drums in the main sanctuary because apparently God doesn't hang around in the fellowship hall he hangs around in the sanctuary and so for us that really was amazing and that was kind of my welcome into ministry where there are attitudes of people have that will stifle your outreach when our church first began because my my babies I my children were very small and when our church began we did not we did not practice and did not take the kids out trick-or-treating we didn't do that that wasn't something Marie and I did and so they didn't have that when the kids would come and knock on the door and everything they they were not out there with their little costumes and so I said you know I want to give the kids an opportunity to just enjoy the day and so that's what we began what we're called hallelujah parties and so we had a hallelujah party when our church is very small it was in October 31st and we we we actually celebrated by giving the kids opportunity to come and play games and dressed in bible costumes and all and that's what caused the people who were renting the church that we were renting renting the church to us the church that we were renting that's what got us kicked out because they said that Calvary Chapel Ontario is worshiping the devil and so they kicked us out of the church what we were trying to do is we were trying to reach the children give them an alternative you don't have to worship the devil you can gather together as kids play some games and enjoy yourself what's wrong with that well a lot of people think there's things wrong with that so this is the kind of stuff that quenches the spirit in reaching the people to do good is lawful we were not practicing satanism they thought we were you know but obviously we weren't what we were doing is giving the kids an option we weren't worshiping the devil with electric guitars and drum beats we weren't going into voodoo trances but that's what the church has done and and a lot of times people begin to wonder why why people get turned off from the church itself is because we add so many layers of weirdness that the people say I don't want to follow your rules and regulations you see one of the things that I loved about and I should just make this quick and I will one of the things I loved about my own pastor Chuck is he didn't like the hippies he didn't like the movement he didn't like any of the things about us but he loved us and because he did you know we we had opportunity to hear the gospel and it transformed our lives that's what the gospels intended to do and so when you put a lot of regulations on it and you tell people a lot of things that that's not in scripture but it's what you like oh I don't like the color of your hair therefore I don't think you should wear tattoos you know to this day there are people still arguing about tattoos oh that's of the devil that's of the devil and then there were girls that were getting their their their their tattoos on their lower back and I've teased about this before some of you most of you probably heard me say this you know they put a little hummingbird on their on their back you know they're we used to call it tramp stamp I don't know what's called now but you put this little hummingbird and I'd warn them I'd say listen that hummingbird's going to be a vulture you're going to grow as you get older and it's going to be aware of these things you know but I never went up and said you can't you can't do that you know why because that's adding to scripture they're taking Old Testament scriptures and and and twists in amount of context you don't have marks on your body as as a veneration to idols and false gods that's what that's what Leviticus said but here we go saying you can't have that you can't have long hair you can't have piercings I don't why I don't know why you want piercings I don't understand piercings that looks like it hurts and it does and some people when they walk by you know magnets a magnetist jump all over their faces you know I mean they get stuck on refrigerators all the time it's just we just have to be careful guys that we don't add to God's word our traditions is it lawful to do good or to do evil Jesus said it's lawful to do good now what's interesting here is I want you to see this and we'll close with this in verse five he was grieved by the hardness of the heart he said to the man stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored as whole as the other how could he do that his hand was withered it was paralyzed it was immobile he could he could have said Lord my hand is withered how then can I stretch it out heal me first and and then I'll do as you say because that's reasonable but in his case that would have been foolish you see the man was healed with a word without even a touch that means the Sabbath was unbroken even according to the most rigid interpretation of the letter of the law Jesus said stretch out your hand the man in faith stretched it out and it was completely restored as whole as the other he gave to him a command that for the man was impossible to obey when God gives a command he also supplies the ability to perform that which is commanded and he said to that man stretch out your hand and that man did the impossible so what is it that has crippled us today what is it that may have crippled you what is it that is keeping you from being what you know you want to be and what he wants you to be do you think that perhaps the Lord may be saying some of us today stretch out your hand do that which is impossible stretch it out whatever it may be and watch what God can do you know if you'd have asked me as a kid if you'd have asked me or told me one of these days you're going to stand in front of people and you're going to talk about God if you'd have told me that I just said you're crazy if you'd have told me that one day I was going to stand in front of people for all these years and share the same message with people I just said that's not going to happen because in my own heart I was crippled but when the Holy Spirit brought his healing to me he made it possible for me to stretch out my crippled hand he made it possible for me to do that which personality wise was really not possible because those of you who know me as a person perhaps on a level outside of just sitting in the view you will know that I'm very shy that I'm very quiet that I just kind of keep to myself because that's my personality that's how I am I only come alive when I'm behind a pulpit I only come alive and show emotion when I'm behind this pulpit that's when I do normally I'll just kind of it's made people kind of awkward around me in the past they'll see me and hi Pastor David how are you and I'm kind of reserved fine you know they're looking and sometimes I think that they think that I'm a snob and I'm really not what I am is shy I'm a shy snob but I'm I just say that in the event that I may see you someday out and because I I run into people quite often in the area and you may be a bit surprised that how reserved I actually am because it's the Holy Spirit that makes me come alive with his word and I've had to learn to stretch out my hand a long time ago to say I'm going to break through see I don't even you may believe this or not I don't show emotion at home I don't I only show up with you guys when I tell you my heart that's me I'm very reserved forgive me for even the motions I show it's hard for me to do that but God told me a long time ago stretch out your hand and I'll make you whole maybe somebody in this room needs to learn to stretch out yours because God wants to do something in you too beyond anything you could ask a thing he wants to use you just be available if he says it do it and then give to him all the glory for that which might come can you do that I hope that you can our father we would ask that you would work in us today Lord you are the Lord of the Sabbath and you have made it as a day of rest a day that we gather together to to worship you a day that we gather together to learn of your word and and to put it into practice a day that we learn to to love you and as a result to just basically overflow with love for other people a day that we center our attention on you a day that we can put into practice daily so I asked Lord that we might learn to to worship you and to love each other and I asked that you would work in us Lord so that we might be living lives that are pleasing to you and even as our eyes are closed and our heads are bowed perhaps the Lord is speaking to some here in this room we need to get right with him maybe you're watching online or you're in one of the overflow areas and the Lord is speaking you need to get right with him I want to pray for you and if you do would you raise your hand right now and let me pray for you right where you're at Father I ask that you would touch these whose hands are raised in Jesus's name I ask that you would reach then and touch them Lord wash and cleanse them work within them and have your way Lord move upon them they may be carrying a burden right now or hurt of some sort or dealing with something that has injured them whatever the case may be I pray that you would just be there heal them and minister to them as they stretch out their hand to you right now I pray that you would reach down and touch them we lift them to you now Lord and we thank you because Father you are the God of answers prayer and we thank you for this and bless you can put your hands down and last time we were together and I feel I want to do it again I feel it's something that we should do right now last time we were together there were some I asked if there's anybody in need of being touched by the Lord physical healing of maybe an emotional healing and you just your body is responding right now in a way that just isn't good and you need you need to touch them but what I want to pray for you and if you if you want prayer for that would you stand up and let me pray for you right where you're at just stand so I might see you Father you see these who are standing right now Lord you know you know what's going on in hearts right now and bodies you know the things that we're going through health wise there are so many that are ill at this time Lord in Jesus name may your hand of healing touch them and mercifully and compassionately Lord I pray that you would work a miracle in them right now Lord by faith we're saying God would you please touch us Lord in Jesus name would you bring healing and I ask that you would Lord because you are the healing God you are the God our healer and we simply cast our cares on you now and ask for your hand to touch and bring healing Lord and by faith we would receive from you and we stretch out our hearts to you right now that you might reach us we give you praise for this and receive the Lord and thank you and bless you thank you you can you can be seated and Jesus I just pray that you continue to move in all of us to your glory in your name amen