Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Lord of the Sabbath: Judgment on Legalism and the Grace of Restoration (Matthew 12:8–14)

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The Lord of the Sabbath: Judgment on Legalism and the Grace of Restoration (Matthew 12:8–14) · Reformed Thinking

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  We'll come back to another session of Reformed thinking.
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  It is really good to have you with us today as we open up the
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  sources and try to get our minds around a text that quite
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  honestly change the way I view the authority of Christ.
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  We are looking at Matthew chapter 12, specifically verses
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  8 through 14. And I have to say, reading
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  through the research and the commentaries for this one, it
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  felt less like reading a Sunday school story and, you know, more
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  like watching a high stakes courtroom drama where the
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  defendant completely turns the tables on the prosecution.
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  It is good to be here. And you are so right about the
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  atmosphere of this text. It is incredibly tense.
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  It is. We're moving past the
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  pleasantries of religious debate here.
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  This isn't some friendly chat over coffee about, you know,
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  theological nuances. No, this is a scene where the
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  credentials of the king are being presented and the
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  opposition is, well, it's deadly serious.
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  The research implies that this is really a pivot point in
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  Matthew's Gospel. It feels like the gloves are
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  coming off. We have this, this massive
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  confrontation between Jesus and the religious establishment, the
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  Pharisees, and it's centering on the Sabbath, right?
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  But what I love about the material we've pulled for this
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  is that it shows this isn't just a debate about what you can or
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  cannot do on a Saturday. Exactly.
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  It's not about the minutia. It is about whether you can sew
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  a button or, you know, walk a certain number of steps.
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  It is about who Jesus actually is.
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  That is the core of it. If you miss the identity claims
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  here, you miss the whole point of the passage.
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  We are going to see Jesus confronting legalism head on.
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  He's going to claim absolute sovereignty as the Lord of the
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  Sabbath, which just a massive statement.
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  That's huge. And in doing so, he reveals the
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  true purpose of God's law, which you know at its heart is mercy.
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  And since this is Reformed thinking, we are going to be
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  looking at this through our specific theological lens.
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  We're going to be referencing the Westminster Confession of
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  faith, talking about the nature of grace, and really digging
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  into the sovereignty of God. I think a lot of people read
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  this and see a nice story about healing, but there is a
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  theological mountain range underneath these few verses.
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  There certainly is, and to really grasp the magnitude of
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  verse 8, which is where our outline suggests we start, you
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  have to look at the immediate context.
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  You have to look at what just happened in the grain fields.
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  Right. The disciples were walking
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  through grain fields, plucking heads of grain because they were
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  hungry. The Pharisee saw this and
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  immediately cried foul, claiming they were working on the
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  Sabbath. Right.
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  They're reaping. Yeah, reaping.
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  So Jesus defends them and he cites David eating the
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  showbread. He cites the priests working in
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  the temple on the Sabbath. But then in verse 8, he stopped
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  citing other people. He stopped citing precedence.
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  He drops the anchor. He does.
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  Verse 8 says for the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath, and
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  the notes here highlight that very first word, for in the
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  Greek it is the word gar. Gar.
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  And I know we try not to get too bogged down in grammar, but why
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  is that little word so heavy in the specific context?
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  Well from what I understand at the post positive conjunction,
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  it connects what follows as the ground or the reason for what
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  came before. It basically signals that what
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  Jesus is about to say is the logical bedrock for the entire
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  defense of the disciples. That is it.
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  That's the whole ball game. The disciples aren't innocent
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  just because David did something similar, or just because they
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  were hungry, or even because the Pharisees were being too strict.
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  Those are all secondary arguments, right?
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  The primary argument, the bedrock, is that they are
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  innocent because of who they are with.
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  It shifts the argument entirely from the action plucking grain
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  to the authority of the one they are following.
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  It is like if you were walking with the king on his private
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  land. The rules about trespassing
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  don't apply to you in the same way because you are with the
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  owner. That is a helpful way to picture
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  it. It is not an excuse, it is a
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  declaration of sovereignty. And look at the title he uses
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  for himself, the Son of Man. Yeah, let's unpack that.
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  Jesus uses that title for himself all the time.
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  I think the source has said over 80 times in the Gospels it is
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  his favorite way to refer to himself.
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  That is right. And often, you know, in modern
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  evangelical circles, people hear Son of Man and they think it is
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  just Jesus emphasizing his humanity, like he is saying I am
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  a human being, I get it. I'm one of you.
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  But that's not the whole story. Not even close.
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  Biblically, if you know your Old Testament, that phrase is
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  pointing straight back to Daniel Chapter 7.
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  It's a loaded term. The vision of the Ancient of
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  Days, yes. Daniel 7 verses 13 and 14.
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  In that vision, Daniel sees one like a Son of man who comes with
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  the clouds of heaven. He approaches the Ancient of
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  Days, God the Father, and he's given dominion and glory and a
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  Kingdom that will not pass away. An everlasting dominion.
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  Everlasting. It is a picture of a divine
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  human figure who rules over everything.
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  It's a messianic title of the highest order.
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  So when Jesus stands in a dusty grain field wearing normal
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  clothes, looking like a Galilean Carpenter and calls himself the
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  Son of Man, he is doing something.
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  I mean, it's just radical. He is bridging the gap between
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  his humiliation, his human form, walking in the dust, getting
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  hungry, and his exaltation as that very figure in Daniel's
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  vision. He is looking at these Pharisees
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  who think they are the ultimate gatekeepers of God's law, and he
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  is effectively saying I am the guy Daniel saw.
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  I am the Messianic king to whom all dominion belongs.
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  It is a claim to absolute cosmic authority.
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  And that leads directly to the predicate of the sentence.
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  He is the Son of man. And what is He?
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  He is Lord of the Sabbath. The Greek word there is curious,
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  and looking at the sentence structure in the original text,
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  it is placed emphatically. It is like He is underlining it,
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  bolding it and putting it in neon lights.
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  Curious. That is the heaviest title you
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  can use in this context in the Septuagint, which was the Greek
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  translation of the Old Testament that the disciples and Pharisees
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  would have been completely familiar with.
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  It was their Bible. It was their Bible in the
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  Septuagint. Curious has used over 6000 times
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  to translate the divine name Yahweh.
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  So we have to pause on that. That is massive.
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  Think about the implications. Who established the Sabbath?
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  God did all the way back in Genesis and.
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  This is 2.3. God created the world and God
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  rested on the 7th day. He sanctified it.
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  It is a creation ordinance. It existed before Israel, before
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  the law of Moses. It is part of the fabric of
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  reality. Correct.
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  And because it is God's day, no human being, no priest, no king,
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  no prophet has the authority to overrule it or claim ownership
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  of it. They are all subject to it.
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  We are all creatures living in God's week.
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  So for Jesus to say I am the Lord of the Sabbath, he isn't
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  just saying I'm a prophet who knows the rules better than you.
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  He is claiming to be the one who rested in Genesis.
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  He is claiming the prerogatives of the Creator.
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  He is identifying himself with Yahweh.
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  This is why High Christology is non negotiable for us as
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  reformed believers. You cannot have a low view of
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  Jesus make any sense of this verse if Jesus is just a good
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  moral teacher. This statement is insanity.
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  It is arrogance of the highest order.
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  It. Would be like me walking into
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  the Supreme Court and saying I am the law.
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  Actually, it's way bigger than that.
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  It is like me walking into the universe and saying I own time.
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  That is a great analogy. It is blasphemy if it isn't
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  true, but if he is God Incarnate it is simply a statement of
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  fact. This really it just shuts down
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  any groups that might deny the Trinity or say Jesus was a
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  created being. I am thinking about Arianism
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  historically or modern groups like Jehovah's Witnesses who
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  argue Jesus is a lesser God or Michael the Archangel or the
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  first creation of God. This text absolutely refutes
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  that a created being cannot rule over a creation ordinance.
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  Only the Creator can claim ownership of the Sabbath.
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  Good point. If Jesus were a creature, even
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  the highest creature, he would still be under the Sabbath law.
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  Just like us, He would be subject to the rules of the day
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  by standing over it. By claiming lordship of it, He
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  reveals his deity. He's distinct from creation.
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  That is such a solid point. It anchors our faith in who he
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  is. But looking at the immediate
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  situation, this claim also seems to be a direct shot at the
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  legalism of the Pharisees. It is not just theology in a
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  vacuum. It is a weapon against their
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  system. Oh, it destroys their system.
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  You have to understand what the Pharisees had done.
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  They had built up all these traditions, the Halaka, the Oral
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  Law. They created what they called
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  fences around the Torah. Fences.
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  Yeah, the idea was if God says don't work, we need to define
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  work so strictly with so many rules that nobody accidentally
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  gets close to breaking the actual law.
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  So they came up with 39 categories of work right?
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  And then thousands of sub rules. Yes.
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  You couldn't tie a certain kind of knot.
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  You couldn't carry a burden from a public place to a private
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  place. They had agonized over these
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  details for generations, but in doing so, they've made
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  themselves the judges of the Sabbath.
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  They became the authority they. Decided what was sin and what
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  wasn't. They sat in Moses seat, but
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  really they were trying to sit in God's seat.
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  Jesus steps in Jesus. Steps in and says no, you don't
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  own this day, I do. He strips them of their self
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  appointed authority. The interpretation of the day
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  belongs to the one who made it. He is taking the gavel out of
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  their hands. Man, that sets the stage
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  perfectly for what happens next. Because after dropping this
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  theological bomb in the grain fields, the text says he moves
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  on. He doesn't just leave town, he
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  goes right into the heart of their power base.
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  Right into the lion's den. This brings us to the next part
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  of our discussion. The trap verse 9 says he went
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  into their synagogue. That phrasing is chilling, isn't
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  it? Matthew writes.
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  Their synagogue. He doesn't call it the synagogue
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  or God synagogue. It is theirs.
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  It sounds possessive, like they have taken it over.
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  That is exactly what the grammar indicates.
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  It indicates A rupture. The institution that was
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  supposed to be the cradle of messianic hope, the place where
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  the Law was read and the Messiah was waited for, has become
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  hostile territory. It has become a place where the
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  Messiah is an intruder. It reminds me of the cleansing
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  of the temple where Jesus says you have made it a den of
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  robbers. Here it is like a synagogue of
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  Satan in spirit. Even if they have the Torah
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  scrolls up front. That's strong way to put it, but
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  it fits. They've evicted God from his own
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  house in favor of their traditions.
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  So Jesus walks into this hostile environment.
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  The lighting is probably dim. The air is thick with tension.
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  Because the Pharisees from the grain field might have followed
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  him or sent word ahead. Everyone's watching him.
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  And there is a man there, The text says he has a withered
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  hand. We need to look at that
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  condition. The Greek term is zerin.
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  It means dried up, atrophied. It implies paralysis and a loss
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  of vital fluids. It is, for all intents and
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  purposes, dead flesh attached to a living body.
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  And we need to think about the social implications here.
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  In that culture, manual labor was how you survived if you have
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  a withered right hand. And Luke's gospel tells us it
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  was his right hand. His primary working.
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  Hand the primary working hand. You are likely destitute.
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  You can't work your trade as a Carpenter, as stone Mason, a
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  farmer. You are marginalized.
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  You are dependent on begging or the charity of others.
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  It was a condition of shame and poverty.
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  The sources make an interesting point here about the man being a
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  metaphor for Israel. Yes, I think that is a very
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  valid connection to make. This man is a living picture of
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  the spiritual state of Israel under the Pharisees.
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  Well, they are religious, they have the structure, they have
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  the appearance of piety, but they are withered, they are
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  dried up. They have no power to do good,
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  no life in them. Just like this man's hand is
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  dead and useless, the Pharisaical system is dead and
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  useless for bringing actual life to the people.
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  It can burden them, but it cannot heal them.
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  But here is the tragedy. The Pharisees look at this man,
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  and they don't see a symbol of your own failure.
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  They certainly don't see a brother who needs help.
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  No, and this is the ugly underbelly of legalism.
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  To them, this human being is a prop.
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  A prop. He is bait.
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  They're using his suffering to set a forensic trap for Jesus.
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  It is dehumanizing in the extreme.
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  They don't care about his pain. They only care if his pain can
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  help them score a point against the Nazarene.
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  And so they asked the question, and again, notice who speaks
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  first in the synagogue? It is the Pharisees.
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  Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
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  Yeah. Now knowing what we know about
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  their motives, this isn't an honest theological inquiry, is
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  it? They aren't asking for
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  clarification. Not at all.
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  The text explicitly says they asked this, that they might
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  accuse him. They want to indict him.
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  They are looking for a capital charge.
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  This is not a search for truth. It's a sting operation.
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  Can you give us some context on the rules they were playing by?
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  Why would healing be unlawful to us?
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  Healing seems like the best thing you could do on a Sabbath.
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  We have to get into the weeds of the Holika, the oral law, and
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  specifically the debate between the School of Shamai and the
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  School of Hillel. At this time, the dominant view,
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  particularly among the strict Pharisees, was very, very
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  rigorous. OK.
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  They believe that medical attention on the Sabbath was
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  only allowed in cases of picky watch nephesh.
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  Pick watch. Nephesh.
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  What's that? It means a threat to life.
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  So an emergency. A life and death emergency, like
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  if someone was bleeding out or having a heart attack or a wall
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  fell on them. Then you could help.
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  Correct. If death is imminent, you can
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  break the Sabbath to save a life.
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  You can stop the bleeding. You can pull them out of the
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  rubble, but, and this is key, you can only do enough to keep
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  him alive until sundown. You cannot perform a full cure
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  if it can wait. So you stabilize them, but you
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  don't complete the treatment. And a withered hand.
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  A withered hand is a chronic condition.
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  He has likely had it for years. He isn't going to die if he
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  waits until sundown. He isn't in acute pain that
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  threatens his life. So in their minds, healing him
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  right now would be work. How is it work?
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  It's practicing medicine. It's applying a cure.
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  It is unnecessary labor. It violates the Sabbath arrest
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  because it isn't an emergency. It's an elective procedure in
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  modern terms. So they have constructed a
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  binary trap, A catch 22, yes. Think about Jesus's options.
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  If he says no, it is not lawful, or if he waits until sundown to
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  heal the man, he discredits his own ministry of compassion.
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  He looks weak. He looks powerless or
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  intimidated by the rules. He validates their authority.
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  He essentially says your interpretation of the law is
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  correct. But if he says yes, or if he
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  goes ahead and heals the man? Then He commits what they
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  consider a grave sin. He breaks the Sabbath in a
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  public setting in their synagogue, and because he claims
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  to be a rabbi, leading people astray like that could be
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  grounds for severe punishment, eventually even death.
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  They think they have him cornered.
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  Checkmate. They are absolutely certain they
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  have him. There's no way out.
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  It is diabolical when you think about it, using God's law
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  regarding rest to trap God's Son regarding mercy.
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  It is the mystery of iniquity. They are using the Bible to
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  oppose the author of the Bible. They are so obsessed with the
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  letter of the law or their interpretation of it, that
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  they're weaponizing it against love itself.
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  But Jesus, being who he is, doesn't step into the trap.
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  He doesn't accept their premise. He dismantles it.
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  And this brings us to the argument he uses.
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  He counters their question with one of his own.
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  He's a classic rabbinic method of argumentation called koala
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  Homer. Koala, Homer.
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  Literally light and heavy. We would call it an argument
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  from the lesser to the greater. If something applies in a minor
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  case, how much more does it apply in a major case?
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  And he uses a sheep for the lesser.
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  He asks, which of you having one sheep, if it falls into a pit on
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  the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?
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  It is a brilliant move because he exposes their hypocrisy
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  immediately. You see, the Pharisees had
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  debates about this. The Damascus document, which is
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  in the scene text found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, actually
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  forbids lifting an animal out. These scenes were stricter.
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  Much stricter, but the Pharisees, they were a bit more
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  pragmatic about their assets. Because a sheep is money, it is
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  an asset. Exactly.
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  It is property. To leave a sheep in a pit is to
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  risk financial loss. It might die or get injured, or
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  a predator might get it, or the wool might be ruined.
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  So their Holiness had a convenient loophole for their
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  wallets. So they would get the sheep out.
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  They would. They're willing to exert effort,
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  lay hold of it and lift it out, which is definitely physical
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  work to save an animal. So Jesus takes that concessive
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  practice of theirs, something they all quietly agreed was OK,
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  and pivots to the greater. He says of how much more value
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  is a man than a sheep. This is the value proposition.
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  We're talking about oncology, about being a sheep is a
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  creature. Yes, it has value, but a human
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  being bears the imago day, the image of God.
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  A human has an eternal soul. A human is the crown of
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  creation. Jesus is forcing them to look at
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  the sheer absurdity of their position.
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  He is forcing them to look at their own logic.
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  You will work to save a beast to protect your bank account, but
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  you will not lift a finger to restore a human image bearer
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  because it violates your made-up rules.
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  It puts it in such stark perspective.
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  It highlights that their system isn't about God's glory, it is
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  about control. And it is totally heartless.
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  They care more about livestock than people.
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  And then he delivers the verdict in verse 12.
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  He doesn't just leave it as a question.
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  He concludes therefore it is lawful to do good on the
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  Sabbath. I love that phrase.
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  It is lawful to do good. It cuts through thousands of
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  pages of rabbinic debate. It's a clarifying sort.
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  He creates A dichotomy here that is very, very important.
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  Jesus implies that on the Sabbath there is no such thing
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  as neutrality. That is the key.
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  In Jesus's view. You are either doing good or you
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  are doing evil. If you have the power to do
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  good, to heal, to help, to save, and you refuse to do it because
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  of a rule, you aren't just resting.
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  You're doing evil. You are doing evil.
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  You are guilty of negligence. Your inaction becomes a sinful
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  action. So passivity can be sin.
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  Absolutely. To withhold good is to commit
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  evil. James talks about this later in
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  his epistle. To him who knows to do good and
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  does not do it. To him it is sin.
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  This connects really well to the Westminster Confession, doesn't
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  it? I know we wanted to bring that
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  in. It does.
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  Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 21, paragraph 8.
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  It defines how the Sabbath is to be kept holy.
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  It talks about resting from worldly employments and
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  recreations. Yes.
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  Right, The usual things we think.
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  Of, but it explicitly adds that this rest is not violated by
• 18:25
  works of necessity and mercy. Necessity and mercy, those are
• 18:29
  the 2 categories. Right.
• 18:30
  Rescuing the sheep is necessity, or perhaps financial protection.
• 18:34
  Mask as necessity. Healing the man is mercy.
• 18:37
  The divines who wrote the confession understood this
• 18:40
  passage perfectly. So true Sabbath keeping isn't
• 18:43
  about inaction. Not at all.
• 18:45
  Jesus is teaching that true Sabbath keeping isn't just
• 18:47
  passivity, sitting in a dark room doing nothing, terrified of
• 18:51
  breaking a rule. It is redemptive activity.
• 18:54
  It is alleviating the curse. That is a beautiful way to put
• 18:57
  it, Alleviating the curse. If God rested from His work of
• 19:01
  creation on the 7th day, we enter into that rest, but that
• 19:05
  doesn't mean we stop loving our neighbors.
• 19:07
  Exactly. God continues the work of
• 19:09
  Providence. He sustains the universe on the
• 19:11
  Sabbath. He heals on the Sabbath.
• 19:13
  Babies are born on the Sabbath. His redemptive work doesn't
• 19:16
  stop. So for us, the Sabbath is a day
• 19:18
  to do good. It is a day to visit the sick,
• 19:21
  to comfort the grieving, to restore what is broken.
• 19:25
  That isn't work in the sense of the curse or economic gain.
• 19:28
  That is the work of the Kingdom. So he has won the argument.
• 19:32
  Logically, he has boxed them in. If they say no to his
• 19:35
  conclusion, they admit they value sheep more than men.
• 19:39
  But he doesn't stop at the argument.
• 19:41
  He moves to demonstration. He does.
• 19:43
  And this brings us to the actual miracle in verse 13.
• 19:46
  And this is where the theology gets incredibly deep.
• 19:49
  He turns to the man. Now picture this.
• 19:51
  The man is standing there, probably terrified.
• 19:54
  The most powerful man in his community are glaring at him.
• 19:56
  Jesus is looking at him. And Jesus gives a command.
• 19:58
  What is he saying? Stretch out your hand?
• 20:00
  I have read the story 1000 times, but when you stop and
• 20:03
  think about it, strictly speaking that is an impossible
• 20:07
  command. It sounds cruel, doesn't it?
• 20:09
  If Jesus is just a man, imagine telling a paralyzed man walk or
• 20:14
  a blind man. Read this sign.
• 20:16
  The pathology of the condition means the muscles are atrophied,
• 20:19
  the nerves are dead or disconnected.
• 20:21
  He physically cannot obey the command.
• 20:23
  His brain might say move, but the arm won't respond.
• 20:27
  So why does Jesus command it? Why not just say be healed and
• 20:30
  then ask him to move it? Because this is a perfect
• 20:33
  illustration of the state of sinful man and the nature of
• 20:36
  God's effectual calling. OK, unpack that.
• 20:38
  We are all like that man the law says to us.
• 20:41
  Be holy, Love God with all your heart.
• 20:43
  Believe, but because of our fallen nature, we are withered.
• 20:47
  We are dead in trespasses and sins.
• 20:49
  We cannot generate that obedience from within ourselves.
• 20:52
  We are spiritually paralyzed. Right.
• 20:54
  We have no ability to stretch out our souls to God on our own
• 20:57
  if Jesus operated on a system where we have to help ourselves,
• 21:00
  a synergistic system. Synergism, where man and God
• 21:03
  work together. Right.
• 21:05
  If that were the case, he would say try really hard to stretch
• 21:08
  it out, give it your best shot and I'll give you a boost for
• 21:11
  the last 10%. But that is not what happens.
• 21:13
  Not at all. The man contributes nothing to
• 21:15
  the healing. He doesn't initiate it, he
• 21:17
  doesn't help it along. He doesn't even express faith
• 21:20
  beforehand. The text doesn't mention it.
• 21:21
  This is where we get into the Reformed doctrine of monarchism,
• 21:24
  yes. Monarchism comes from the Greek
• 21:27
  Mono 1 and Ergon Work One working salvation is the work of
• 21:33
  God alone from beginning to end. Jesus issues the command, and
• 21:37
  the command itself carries the creative power to enable the
• 21:40
  obedience. That is mind blowing when you
• 21:42
  apply it to salvation. The power isn't in the man's
• 21:44
  will, it is in Jesus's word. Exactly.
• 21:47
  Think of creation. Let there be light.
• 21:49
  The light didn't decide to shine.
• 21:50
  It didn't exist to decide anything.
• 21:53
  God spoke and the speaking created the reality.
• 21:55
  Or Lazarus. Or Lazarus in the tomb.
• 21:57
  He is 4 days dead. He is rotting.
• 22:00
  Jesus says Lazarus come forth. Lazarus doesn't weigh the
• 22:03
  options. He doesn't contribute effort to
• 22:06
  his resurrection. The call creates the life that
• 22:09
  then responds to the call. The notes mention a quote from
• 22:12
  Augustine here that fits perfectly.
• 22:14
  Yes, Augustine's famous prayer and his confessions.
• 22:17
  Lord, command what you will and grant what you command.
• 22:21
  That is exactly what we are seeing in the synagogue.
• 22:24
  Jesus commands the impossible stretch out, and in the
• 22:28
  commanding he grants the power to perform it.
• 22:30
  And the result is immediate, the text says.
• 22:33
  And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the
• 22:36
  other. The Greek word for restored is
• 22:38
  apiceta, staff. It is a divine passive.
• 22:41
  God is the actor, the man is the recipient.
• 22:44
  And notice the quality of the healing.
• 22:46
  It wasn't a partial recovery. He didn't need six months of
• 22:49
  physical therapy to rebuild the muscle.
• 22:50
  It was instant total restoration.
• 22:53
  Now I want to make a quick note here because we want to
• 22:55
  interpret this responsibly. We are seeing a lot of faith
• 22:58
  healers today who claim to do this.
• 23:00
  Some people might look at this text and say, OK, so if I have
• 23:02
  enough faith or if I command it right, Jesus will fix my
• 23:05
  physical ailments right now. That is a common error, yeah.
• 23:08
  And it can lead to a lot of heartbreak and, frankly,
• 23:10
  theological abuse. We need to be careful.
• 23:13
  From a Reformed perspective, we generally hold that while God
• 23:16
  can heal whenever he wants. And he does.
• 23:18
  He absolutely does, but the specific the gift of healing on
• 23:22
  demand as seen in the apostles was what we call a sign gift.
• 23:26
  A sign gift. Yes, a semion.
• 23:28
  Its purpose wasn't just healthcare, it was validation.
• 23:32
  This miracle was validating Jesus specific claim to be the
• 23:35
  Messiah and the Lord of the Sabbath.
• 23:37
  It was proving his identity. It was a sign pointing to who he
• 23:41
  is. So it is not necessarily a
• 23:43
  normative promise that every believer gets perfect health in
• 23:46
  this life. Right.
• 23:47
  It points to the final Kingdom restoration.
• 23:49
  It proves He has the authority to forgive sins and grant
• 23:52
  eternal Sabbath rest. The physical healing is a
• 23:55
  signpost pointing to the greater spiritual reality.
• 23:58
  If we make it just about getting our bodies fixed now, we miss
• 24:01
  the bigger picture and we set ourselves up for disappointment
• 24:04
  if God chooses not to heal physically in this timeline.
• 24:06
  OK, so the man is healed. His hand is fresh pink, moving.
• 24:10
  The crowd is probably stunned. The argument is 1.
• 24:14
  The power is demonstrated. You would expect the Pharisees
• 24:17
  to fall on their knees. You'd think so.
• 24:19
  I mean, they just saw a miracle, a creative miracle.
• 24:22
  You would think they'd say, OK, you went, you are the Lord.
• 24:25
  We were wrong. You would hope that logic and
• 24:27
  evidence would lead to faith, but this passage shows us that
• 24:32
  evidence isn't enough. If the heart is hard, we get the
• 24:35
  absolute opposite reaction. This brings us to the aftermath,
• 24:38
  verse 14. Then the Pharisees went out and
• 24:40
  plotted against him, how they might destroy him.
• 24:43
  It is the darkest verse in the chapter.
• 24:45
  Maybe in the first half of the book.
• 24:47
  Instead of worship, they choose murder.
• 24:50
  They leave the presence of the healer to go conspire with one
• 24:53
  another. And the irony?
• 24:54
  It is just thick. It is overwhelming.
• 24:56
  It is. Let's trace it.
• 24:58
  Jesus spends the Sabbath healing, giving life, restoring
• 25:01
  a man to wholeness, to his work, to his community.
• 25:04
  The Pharisees call that a sin. Right, a capital effect.
• 25:06
  The Pharisees spend the Sabbath plotting A premeditated murder,
• 25:11
  conspiring to destroy a man, and they think that is
• 25:14
  righteousness. They think they are serving God
• 25:16
  by planning to kill God. Who is the real Sabbath breaker
• 25:20
  here? It is clearly the Pharisees.
• 25:22
  They are breaking the moral law thou shalt not murder while
• 25:25
  pretending to uphold their version of the ceremonial law.
• 25:29
  They're straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel, to use
• 25:32
  Jesus's own words from later in the Gospel.
• 25:35
  This really exposes the human heart, doesn't it?
• 25:37
  It scares me a little. It should.
• 25:39
  It is a textbook demonstration of total depravity.
• 25:42
  We tend to think depravity means everyone is running around
• 25:44
  acting like a savage. But depravity is often most
• 25:48
  visible and most dangerous in religious self righteousness.
• 25:52
  When the unregenerate heart is confronted with pure,
• 25:54
  unadulterated goodness, God in the flesh, it doesn't naturally
• 25:57
  love him, it hates him. Because he threatens their
• 26:00
  control. Exactly.
• 26:01
  He threatens their autonomy. He threatens their system.
• 26:04
  They value their traditions, their power, and their prestige
• 26:07
  more than the Savior standing in front of them.
• 26:09
  They would rather kill the Messiah than change their
• 26:11
  theology. The notes mention this as a
• 26:13
  turning point in the Gospel. It is.
• 26:16
  This is where the shadow of the cross really starts to fall.
• 26:18
  The opposition has now crystallized into a murderous
• 26:21
  plot. The Greek word for destroy here
• 26:24
  is a Pulisosan. It implies annihilation.
• 26:27
  They don't just want him to stop talking, they want him gone.
• 26:31
  It's the beginning of the end. In a way, it's.
• 26:33
  The seed of the serpent plotting against the seed of the woman
• 26:36
  going all the way back to the promise in Genesis 3.15.
• 26:40
  This is that ancient cosmic battle playing out in a dusty
• 26:43
  local synagogue. Wow yes, and it is a warning
• 26:47
  called the mystery of iniquity. These men had the right theology
• 26:51
  on paper. They were the conservatives of
• 26:53
  their day. They believed in the Bible, they
• 26:55
  believed in the resurrection, and yet they became the enemies
• 26:59
  of God. It is a terrifying reminder that
• 27:01
  correct doctrine without a regenerate heart is not just
• 27:04
  useless, it's dangerous. It is, and that leads us
• 27:07
  perfectly into our final thoughts here.
• 27:08
  We need to synthesize this. We can't just leave this in the
• 27:11
  1st century. We need to apply this reformed
• 27:13
  thinking to ourselves. Absolutely.
• 27:14
  We always want to look at head, heart and hands.
• 27:17
  Let's start with the head doctrine.
• 27:19
  What is the big take away we need to lock in?
• 27:21
  First and foremost, high Christology.
• 27:23
  We cannot settle for a nice guy Jesus or a good teacher Jesus.
• 27:28
  He's the Lord of the Sabbath. He is Yahweh in the flesh.
• 27:31
  That is the cornerstone. If you lose that, you lose
• 27:34
  Christianity. Period.
• 27:36
  And regarding the law? We need a correct understanding
• 27:39
  of the law. The law is holy and good, but it
• 27:42
  is a guide for gratitude, what we in Reformed circles call the
• 27:46
  third use of the law. It shows us how to love God and
• 27:49
  neighbor because we've been saved.
• 27:51
  It's not a ladder to climb to get saved.
• 27:54
  Exactly. It is not a cage, and it is
• 27:56
  certainly not a system where we create our own rules and add
• 27:59
  them to God's binding consciences, where God has left
• 28:02
  them free. OK, moving to the heart
• 28:04
  examination. This is the tough part where we
• 28:06
  have to look in the mirror. We have to warn against the
• 28:08
  Pharisee spirit in our own churches.
• 28:10
  It is so easy to drift into this.
• 28:12
  We love our order, we love our traditions, we love our
• 28:14
  bulletins to be just so. But the question is, do we value
• 28:18
  our traditions, our way of doing things, our unwritten rules more
• 28:21
  than we value people? Do we look at the withered hands
• 28:24
  in our midst with annoyance? That is a question that haunts
• 28:27
  me when a messy Sinner walks in, or someone with special needs,
• 28:31
  or someone who just doesn't fit the mold, or someone who is
• 28:34
  socially awkward. Is our first reaction
• 28:38
  compassion? Do we want to see them restored?
• 28:42
  Or is it something else? Or is our first reaction?
• 28:45
  They are disrupting our service, They are making things
• 28:47
  difficult. They're sitting in my Pew.
• 28:48
  If it is the latter. If it is the latter, we are
• 28:51
  standing in the shoes of the Pharisees.
• 28:52
  We are protecting our synagogue rather than welcoming people
• 28:56
  into God's house. It's a sobering check for every
• 28:58
  single one of. Us.
• 28:59
  That cuts deep. Now the hand squids practice.
• 29:02
  How do we live this out, especially regarding the
• 29:04
  Sabbath? I know in our Reformed circles
• 29:06
  we take the Lord's Day seriously.
• 29:08
  We do, and we should. We avoid antinomianism.
• 29:11
  We don't say the Sabbath is abolished.
• 29:14
  Jesus is the Lord of it, so it still matters.
• 29:16
  It's a creation ordinance. But we also avoid legalism.
• 29:19
  We don't make up rules God didn't give.
• 29:22
  We don't judge other believers for how they observe it within
• 29:25
  the balance of Scripture. Sunday should be different it.
• 29:27
  Should be a day of delight, a day of rest, yes, public and
• 29:32
  private worship, but also a day of active mercy.
• 29:35
  It is not just about what you don't do.
• 29:37
  Don't work your job, don't ignore God.
• 29:39
  It is about what you do. Like what?
• 29:42
  Visit the nursing home. Invite the lonely person from
• 29:44
  church over for lunch. Call someone who is struggling
• 29:47
  with depression. Write a letter of encouragement.
• 29:50
  Do good. That is how you keep the Sabbath
• 29:52
  holy. You imitate the Lord of the
• 29:54
  Sabbath, who healed on that day. And finally, the gospel call.
• 29:58
  We always want to bring it back to the good news.
• 30:00
  For the listener who feels like that man with the withered hand,
• 30:03
  maybe you are listening and you feel weary.
• 30:05
  Maybe you feel like it. You can't believe, you can't
• 30:07
  repent. You were just spiritually
• 30:09
  paralyzed. You know what you should do, but
• 30:11
  you have no power to do it. The command stands.
• 30:13
  The command stands. Stretch out your hand, repent
• 30:16
  and believe. You cannot do it alone, but the
• 30:19
  call to believe carries the power to believe.
• 30:22
  Look away from your own inability.
• 30:24
  Stop checking your own spiritual pulse.
• 30:26
  What should you do instead? Look to the commander, Look to
• 30:29
  Christ. He provides the power and the
• 30:31
  call. If He is calling you to come to
• 30:34
  Him, He will give you the legs to walk.
• 30:36
  Trust Him. That is beautiful.
• 30:39
  It really takes the pressure off of us and puts the glory on him.
• 30:42
  That is the heart of Reformed theology.
• 30:44
  Soli de O Gloria, glory to God alone.
• 30:47
  As we wrap up this deep dive, there's one final thought I want
• 30:50
  to leave with our listeners. It is something of a paradox
• 30:53
  that stuck with me from the reading.
• 30:54
  The irony of history. Yeah, the Pharisees plotted to
• 30:58
  destroy Jesus, to save their Sabbath.
• 31:01
  They thought getting rid of Him would preserve their religion,
• 31:04
  their control, their nation. But in the end, God used that
• 31:08
  very destruction, the cross, to establish the eternal Sabbath
• 31:11
  rest for us. Their evil plot became God's
• 31:14
  plan for redemption. They meant it for evil.
• 31:16
  God meant it for good. The death they plotted brought
• 31:19
  about the life we enjoy. He turned their greatest sin
• 31:22
  into our greatest salvation. Amen to that.
• 31:24
  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into reformed
• 31:26
  thinking. We hope this has challenged you
• 31:28
  and encouraged you to look at the text with fresh eyes.
• 31:30
  Go read Matthew 12 again. Read it slowly.
• 31:33
  It is all there. Until next time, keep thinking
• 31:36
  deeply.