WEBVTT 00:00:01.159 --> 00:00:06.410 If you have served in our country's armed forces, would you stand and let us thank you? 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:08.359 Would you please stand if you're a veteran? 00:00:08.359 --> 00:00:08.359 (Applause) 00:00:29.289 --> 00:00:36.509 We thank you for your service, and even more, we thank our great God, who gave us this nation and the freedoms that we enjoy. 00:00:37.490 --> 00:00:41.070 If you have your Bibles this morning, I encourage you to open to the Gospel of Mark. 00:00:41.070 --> 00:00:43.079 We start chapter 3 today. 00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:46.140 If you're visiting, we're working our way through the Gospel of Mark. 00:00:46.710 --> 00:00:47.340 What are we doing? 00:00:47.341 --> 00:00:57.719 I was just thinking about, as we were singing that last song, the beautiful name, the wonderful name, the powerful name of Jesus. 00:00:57.720 --> 00:00:59.609 We're looking at what is in that name? 00:01:00.299 --> 00:01:14.849 Who is this one who reveals himself, that we know as Jesus, who reveals himself as God, by his Holy Spirit, works through John Mark to describe a little bit, a little glimpse of his life and ministry. 00:01:15.450 --> 00:01:19.950 So we pick it up in chapter 3 today, beginning at the first verse. 00:01:19.950 --> 00:01:25.200 This morning I'm reading from the New American Standard, and I'm going to dive right in. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:33.870 "And he--" that's Jesus--"entered again into a synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand." Now let me pause there. 00:01:33.870 --> 00:01:37.379 That word"again" is significant. 00:01:37.381 --> 00:01:39.239 What does Mark want us to see? 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:49.079 Something has begun previous in chapter 2 that now Mark wants us to see is part of a pattern that's actually going to build and build. 00:01:49.409 --> 00:01:53.700 He's entering into the synagogue on the Sabbath. 00:01:54.209 --> 00:02:06.989 This is-- if you missed it last week, we talked about one of the ways that Jesus got in trouble, so to speak, with the religious rulers of his day was what we call controversy about the Sabbath. 00:02:07.109 --> 00:02:09.750 We kind of unpacked that last week. 00:02:10.259 --> 00:02:14.789 And so right after last week's text, what do we see this week? 00:02:15.030 --> 00:02:21.150 Again, he's initiating what will be a Sabbath encounter, a Sabbath controversy. 00:02:21.151 --> 00:02:24.210 He is intentionally initiating this. 00:02:24.389 --> 00:02:36.479 He is walking, really, into what we could consider another trap laid by the religious leaders using the Sabbath and the synagogue, and this man who was there. 00:02:36.699 --> 00:02:46.530 There's some speculation that this man with a withered hand may have even been intentionally brought in by these religious leaders to the synagogue to set Jesus up for this. 00:02:46.770 --> 00:02:49.979 I can't prove that, but that makes a lot of sense to me. 00:02:50.729 --> 00:02:51.810 The man was there. 00:02:51.811 --> 00:02:57.240 I want you to notice the man, as we go through this text, he does not initiate anything with Jesus. 00:02:57.241 --> 00:03:00.669 We see other people coming to Jesus for healing. 00:03:00.670 --> 00:03:03.400 We see other people going through great lengths. 00:03:03.401 --> 00:03:09.370 Remember the men, the friends who removed the part of the ceiling to lower their friend down before Jesus? 00:03:09.371 --> 00:03:14.319 But here, this man is just sitting there in the group, in the synagogue on the Sabbath. 00:03:14.320 --> 00:03:16.689 Jesus initiates this encounter. 00:03:16.691 --> 00:03:22.189 And this is a man with a withered hand. 00:03:22.191 --> 00:03:25.569 That term that Mark uses, that Greek term, we can't get real specific. 00:03:26.300 --> 00:03:38.889 All we really know is it describes a condition of paralysis or deformity that could have been the result of an accident, could have been from disease, it could have been a birth defect of some kind. 00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:43.330 Verse 2:"And they--" that is the Pharisees. 00:03:43.330 --> 00:03:59.409 You see that from verse 6, if you look ahead there--"they--" the Pharisees, the religious rulers--"were watching him--" Jesus--"to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, in order that they might accuse him." They were watching him. 00:03:59.411 --> 00:04:08.560 And that's an imperfect, which, you know, normally I don't make much of the verb usage here, but that means this is an ongoing activity. 00:04:08.561 --> 00:04:10.509 This is not a one-time thing. 00:04:10.510 --> 00:04:11.560 This is a campaign. 00:04:11.889 --> 00:04:14.680 They've been doing this day in and day out. 00:04:14.681 --> 00:04:17.699 They are watching him carefully. 00:04:17.701 --> 00:04:18.100 Why? 00:04:18.100 --> 00:04:20.290 They're not impartial observers. 00:04:20.290 --> 00:04:22.420 They're not just interested people. 00:04:22.420 --> 00:04:28.360 They are looking for a way to accuse him, to bring legal charges against him. 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:36.009 So at this point already, just two chapters in, the religious leaders have already made up their minds about Jesus. 00:04:36.011 --> 00:04:40.209 They don't see his name as beautiful, as wonderful, as powerful. 00:04:40.211 --> 00:04:42.310 They see his name as a threat to them. 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:47.529 They see him as a challenge to the influence and control that they have over the people. 00:04:47.531 --> 00:04:48.790 They want to bring him down. 00:04:49.569 --> 00:04:52.149 They want him taken out like John the Baptist. 00:04:52.720 --> 00:05:05.889 John the Baptist, just by being faithful to the Lord, of course, was taken into Roman custody by Herod Antipas and executed, his head cut off, and that's what, already, these religious leaders want to see happen to Jesus. 00:05:06.129 --> 00:05:10.689 We've seen this growing opposition to Jesus developing over the last two chapters. 00:05:10.690 --> 00:05:18.970 We saw it all the way back in chapter 1, verse 22:"The crowds and the people were amazed at Jesus' teaching." Why? 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:24.220 Because he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes. 00:05:25.180 --> 00:05:38.740 So the religious leaders who had the titles of authority, they had the positions of authority, the people heard nothing out of their mouths or saw nothing in their actions that communicated the authority of God to them. 00:05:39.250 --> 00:05:41.829 But Jesus, but these people heard something. 00:05:41.831 --> 00:05:49.389 They intuited something in Jesus's teaching that communicated the very authority of God. 00:05:49.391 --> 00:06:03.470 And maybe they couldn't put their finger on what it was, but they knew it was different, and they were drawn to Jesus, which is away from the influence and control of these religious leaders, so the opposition starts all the way back in chapter 1. 00:06:03.470 --> 00:06:16.279 They begin looking for grounds to accuse him in chapter two, verse six: the scribes are sitting there when he forgives a man of his sins before healing him, and what are they thinking? 00:06:16.850 --> 00:06:31.939 "He's blaspheming!""So maybe," they think,"we can accuse him and we can get them taken out by accusing of blasphemy." And then we go forward in chapter 2, to verse 16, and they are following him again, watching him in this ongoing activity. 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:33.050 And what do they see? 00:06:33.050 --> 00:06:41.439 They see that he's keeping company with sinners and tax collectors, and it occurs to them,"Maybe we can accuse him of immorality. 00:06:41.449 --> 00:06:49.100 Maybe we can make a case that he's doing what these sinners do, that he has the kind of flawed character that these tax collectors do. 00:06:49.100 --> 00:07:01.250 Maybe we can take them out that way." And then last week, we saw in chapter 2:24 the beginning of a new angle: to take him out by violating the Sabbath law. 00:07:01.459 --> 00:07:11.389 The Pharisees were saying to him,"Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And if you weren't here last week, I encourage you to listen to that sermon online. 00:07:11.569 --> 00:07:23.180 You get a lot of background of where Sabbath law developed extra-biblically, outside of the Bible, and how how burdensome it had become, but that's their grounds now. 00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:29.480 That's one of many grounds they're seeking to develop, but that's the grounds, as we come back to mark chapter 3, verse 2. 00:07:29.660 --> 00:07:30.980 What are they looking for on this occasion? 00:07:30.980 --> 00:07:37.879 They are looking to see if Jesus would heal this man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. 00:07:37.880 --> 00:07:50.029 Then, just a real quick recap of last week, the fourth commandment:"Remember the sabbath and keep it holy.""Remember the Sabbath." It's a day of rest, not of work. 00:07:50.031 --> 00:08:00.079 And then the Mosaic law, the first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, explaining that out further. 00:08:00.081 --> 00:08:13.100 But they had built a whole system of extra-biblical laws, of rabbinic tradition, getting down to the tiniest detail about what you could and couldn't do on the Sabbath. 00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:24.889 And really, where it comes to play in this incident today, is the general principle,"Well, what happens on the Sabbath if somebody needs medical treatment?" Here's the general principle. 00:08:24.891 --> 00:08:35.659 And this, by the way, this is within the rabbinic law, not the biblical law, the rabbinic law at that time, and it still exists today among Jews who practice the Sabbath law. 00:08:35.660 --> 00:08:52.250 Here's the general principle when it comes to healing, when it comes to medical treatment: when treating a patient who is critically ill or when dealing with a patient whose life is in danger, one is commanded to violate the Sabbath. 00:08:52.250 --> 00:08:53.899 So it sounds good so far, right? 00:08:53.900 --> 00:08:58.110 You can save life on the Sabbath. 00:08:58.110 --> 00:09:13.559 Sabbath rules can be overridden when life is in danger, but that is a pretty high standard for the Jews both then and now, and let me just give you a few illustrations of how high that standard is. 00:09:14.009 --> 00:09:16.590 So here are restrictions. 00:09:16.591 --> 00:09:28.379 Yes, you can save life on the Sabbath if somebody is dying, if somebody is perishing, and if they don't get medical care, they're going to die, but here's a few sample restrictions that existed then and still exist today. 00:09:29.580 --> 00:09:34.769 One: it is forbidden to set a dislocated hand or foot on the Sabbath. 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:38.580 Again, that's not in the Bible, but that's out of rabbinic tradition. 00:09:38.581 --> 00:09:43.590 You find that in the Mishnah or the Talmud, the recordings of rabbinic tradition. 00:09:44.039 --> 00:09:49.080 I don't know if any of you have ever had a dislocated hand or a dislocated foot. 00:09:49.081 --> 00:09:56.669 I dislocated a finger playing football, and that was pain enough that I wanted it treated that day. 00:09:56.671 --> 00:09:58.559 So what's the restriction here? 00:09:58.561 --> 00:10:03.389 You can't get treated on the Sabbath if all you have is a dislocated hand or foot. 00:10:03.390 --> 00:10:05.759 That is not life-endangering. 00:10:05.760 --> 00:10:20.370 Here's another one: any medical procedure which is necessary to perform for the patient, but it is clear that it is not at all needed to be performed on the Sabbath, should be delayed until after the Sabbath. 00:10:20.370 --> 00:10:21.870 So think that out. 00:10:21.870 --> 00:10:22.679 You need to have surgery. 00:10:22.679 --> 00:10:23.519 Something's wrong. 00:10:23.520 --> 00:10:26.360 Something's causing you pain. 00:10:26.580 --> 00:10:32.340 You need the surgery to correct that and relieve the pain, but it's not going to kill you in 24 hours. 00:10:32.730 --> 00:10:33.539 You have to wait. 00:10:33.929 --> 00:10:36.990 You can't have that surgery on the Sabbath. 00:10:37.019 --> 00:10:38.970 That's the restrictions. 00:10:38.970 --> 00:10:42.659 It does not rise to the level of being life-endangering. 00:10:42.660 --> 00:10:54.360 Here's one more: imagine, you know, not hard to imagine in Israel, but anywhere, imagine an earthquake and buildings coming down in an earthquake. 00:10:54.590 --> 00:10:55.980 Here is the restriction. 00:10:55.980 --> 00:11:07.320 If a building falls down on the Sabbath, enough rubble can be removed to discover if any victims are dead or alive, and if alive, the victims can be rescued. 00:11:07.321 --> 00:11:12.960 But if dead, the corpses must be left until after the Sabbath. 00:11:12.961 --> 00:11:16.470 Not life-endangering to a corpse, is it? 00:11:16.471 --> 00:11:29.850 And we hear that, and we feel the coldness in that, but that's the kind of rabbinic tradition that had developed just in this area of medical care, of healing, of saving lives. 00:11:30.330 --> 00:11:41.009 And so you can see, you can infer from these conditions, or from these restrictions, how the religious leaders were viewing what was going on there that day in the synagogue. 00:11:41.010 --> 00:11:43.309 This man only has a withered hand. 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:44.590 That withered hand isn't going to kill him. 00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:48.629 He's had that withered hand probably a long time, maybe from birth. 00:11:48.630 --> 00:11:55.929 And even if Jesus can do something about it, you don't have to do anything about it today, on the Sabbath. 00:11:55.931 --> 00:11:58.149 It can wait'til a weekday. 00:11:58.150 --> 00:12:01.120 It's not life-threatening. 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:14.350 So according to their rules, their extra-biblical restrictions, if this man wants to be healed, he must wait for a weekday, and really, they couldn't have cared about this man less. 00:12:14.350 --> 00:12:18.039 Really, they were callous toward this man. 00:12:18.041 --> 00:12:25.240 Whether they set this man up, bringing him in to trap Jesus, or whether they just took advantage of the fact that he was there, the effect is the same. 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:30.879 They are using him as a tool to try and trap Jesus. 00:12:32.049 --> 00:12:42.789 Jesus, by contrast, see, something totally different: yes, it's the Sabbath, but he sees this man sitting there in his suffering and in his shame. 00:12:43.690 --> 00:12:44.950 This man is suffering. 00:12:44.950 --> 00:12:46.269 He's probably disabled. 00:12:46.270 --> 00:12:49.870 Imagine having one of your hands paralyzed where you cannot use it. 00:12:49.870 --> 00:12:52.210 Imagine the impact it would have on your life. 00:12:52.470 --> 00:12:54.070 There is a degree of suffering in that. 00:12:54.071 --> 00:13:09.279 Imagine the shame, especially if it had a very obvious appearance of deformity, of how how you as a man or a woman, for that matter, would feel, walking around with people seeing your deformed hand. 00:13:09.280 --> 00:13:17.889 Jesus sees this man in his suffering and his shame, and he's moved with compassion toward this man. 00:13:17.890 --> 00:13:22.840 So verse 3:"He said to the man with the withered hand,'Rise. 00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:23.980 Stand up. 00:13:25.090 --> 00:13:27.960 Come forward.'" Again, the man does not initiate the encounter. 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:30.549 Jesus initiates the encounter. 00:13:30.551 --> 00:13:37.509 The man's sitting there silently, and Jesus calls to him and then notice how Jesus does it. 00:13:37.539 --> 00:13:43.000 Could Jesus have healed that man right where he was sitting, without even having him stand up? 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:45.429 Of course he could have. 00:13:45.431 --> 00:13:47.799 But Jesus has him stand. 00:13:47.801 --> 00:13:57.370 Jesus has him stand up where everybody can see him, and if that's not enough, Jesus has him come forward to the center of the synagogue. 00:13:57.370 --> 00:14:03.100 These are commands that he speaks:"Rise and come forward." What is he doing? 00:14:03.100 --> 00:14:15.370 He's not only going to heal this man; he's going to focus everybody's attention in the synagogue on really what the main issue is: not just the attention of the religious leaders, but everybody's attention. 00:14:15.370 --> 00:14:42.580 Here's the real question that Jesus wants to bring into focus for them, and by the way, for us:"Does Jesus have the authority that he claims?" For them,"Does he have the authority over the Sabbath?""Does he have the authority to really explain and even enlighten us about God's purpose for the Sabbath and how God wants us to live out the Sabbath principle?" But it goes much beyond that. 00:14:42.610 --> 00:14:46.330 For you and me today, does Jesus have authority over us? 00:14:46.649 --> 00:14:51.129 That's the question he's forcing everyone to consider, then and today. 00:14:51.970 --> 00:14:53.450 It's a real, valid question. 00:14:53.451 --> 00:14:53.809 Why? 00:14:53.811 --> 00:15:26.389 Because we live in a culture, particularly today, where many people would think of themselves as Christians, many people would claim to have some kind of connection, some kind of relationship with Jesus, many people look back to perhaps a prayer that they prayed at some point in life or some kind of experience, particularly an emotional experience, and yet, and this was true of me for many years, and yet they live their life, not under Jesus's authority; they live their life under their own authority. 00:15:26.899 --> 00:15:29.539 They call their own shots in life. 00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:37.309 Jesus may be savior, but Jesus isn't Lord, having authority over their lives. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:40.070 So Jesus pushes that question then. 00:15:40.071 --> 00:15:41.809 Jesus pushes that question. 00:15:41.811 --> 00:15:54.350 That's part of the reason the Holy Spirit has brought you here this morning, is he wants you to consider where you stand in relationship to what he's revealing to you through his word about Jesus. 00:15:55.190 --> 00:15:59.720 Well, in verse 4, Jesus challenges the Pharisees. 00:15:59.721 --> 00:16:10.970 "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?" I love how he starts this. 00:16:10.971 --> 00:16:14.029 "Is it lawful?" What is he doing there? 00:16:14.030 --> 00:16:16.730 He's referring to:"Where's your source? 00:16:16.909 --> 00:16:18.620 Not in your rabbinic tradition. 00:16:18.620 --> 00:16:21.110 Where's your source in God's word? 00:16:21.110 --> 00:16:26.570 Where's your source in the Mosaic law?" Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. 00:16:26.571 --> 00:16:36.649 "Where is your source for saying that, out of compassion and out of mercy, a man cannot be healed on the Sabbath? 00:16:38.090 --> 00:16:57.919 "Show me your source in God's word, not in your own opinions." It reminds me: the denomination that I grew up in after I was saved and the one I'm ordained in, the Evangelical Free Church, there's this traditional saying and it's simply this:"Where stands it written?" And what does that mean? 00:16:57.921 --> 00:17:15.799 It means that there's this understanding in our denomination that you can have your preferences, and on secondary issues you can have your opinions, but before you impress your preferences or your secondary opinions on someone else, show me where that is in God's word. 00:17:16.339 --> 00:17:21.740 Show me, respectfully, lovingly, show me how you support that with what God says. 00:17:22.190 --> 00:17:42.619 And if you can't, if you can't support it in God's word, don't impress it upon other people, even if it's a preference that's very dear to you, even if it's an opinion on a secondary matter that you feel very strongly about, if you cannot support it in God's word definitively, do not make it a barrier between us. 00:17:42.710 --> 00:18:02.759 "Where stands it written?" That'd be a very good practice for all of us as followers of Jesus Christ, and that's what he's saying here when he says,"Is it lawful?" Well, more specifically, Jesus is challenging them to show him where God in his word has spoken to the issue of doing good or doing harm. 00:18:02.760 --> 00:18:04.980 Think of the stance of these religious leaders. 00:18:04.980 --> 00:18:15.180 They're willing to ignore the pitiful condition, the suffering, of this man, even to use that suffering to entrap Jesus on the Sabbath. 00:18:16.019 --> 00:18:29.670 And Jesus is implying,"Is that doing good, or is that actually doing evil?" Jesus, by contrast, reveals the heart of God in how he responds. 00:18:29.671 --> 00:18:40.289 "What does God say is good, on the Sabbath or any day?" Well, much scripture speaks to that, but I think particularly in one of my favorite scriptures, Micah 6:8. 00:18:40.769 --> 00:18:44.400 This is God speaking through the prophet Micah to his people. 00:18:44.549 --> 00:18:48.119 "He has showed you, O man, what is good." Here it is. 00:18:48.121 --> 00:18:50.220 Here's what God says is good. 00:18:50.221 --> 00:18:52.470 "And what does the Lord require of you? 00:18:52.471 --> 00:19:03.660 To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." God does want us to do good on the Sabbath. 00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:10.980 And he defines what is good here in a similar passage: to do good on the Sabbath or any day is to act justly. 00:19:10.980 --> 00:19:17.220 To do what is right toward the people that he brings into our lives. 00:19:17.221 --> 00:19:29.160 To do good on the Sabbath or any day is to love mercy, to show compassion toward hurting people that we encounter, whatever day of the week it is. 00:19:29.161 --> 00:19:40.589 So Jesus is proclaiming to them, and he's teaching us this morning, that not only is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, but that God actually requires that we do good on the Sabbath. 00:19:40.589 --> 00:19:47.130 He calls us to respond mercifully to people who are hurting and needy that he brings across our path. 00:19:48.450 --> 00:19:54.180 Let me just make that very real: consider within the walls of this building, when we come on Sunday mornings. 00:19:54.181 --> 00:20:07.859 Again, referring to last week's sermon, Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath, but Sunday is the day that for many of us, we seek to live out the principle of the Sabbath, to rest and be refreshed. 00:20:08.099 --> 00:20:13.200 And part of that is we come and we're together and we worship together and we fellowship together. 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:18.930 So you come on Sundays, and you know, you have things that you want to do on Sunday mornings. 00:20:18.930 --> 00:20:23.720 You need to get to your connect group, or after service, you need to get to lunch. 00:20:23.721 --> 00:20:29.970 But what happens, you know, when you have an agenda, where you need to go and what you need to do, what happens when you encounter a person and you give the standard greeting? 00:20:30.269 --> 00:20:44.490 "How are you doing?" And they may answer,"I'm fine." And your radar, your intuition or your spiritual discernment, picks up that is not the case, that that person may be saying those words, but that person is burdened. 00:20:44.910 --> 00:20:47.529 There's something further going on there. 00:20:48.700 --> 00:20:50.859 We have a choice at that moment. 00:20:51.609 --> 00:20:53.079 Are we going to be merciful? 00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:55.900 Are we going to do what is good? 00:20:56.859 --> 00:21:03.069 Might I have to divert my plans to get to the restaurant that I want to go to in time to get a table? 00:21:03.190 --> 00:21:11.680 Might I have to divert my plans to probe deeper, to actually spend some time with that person, to pray with that person? 00:21:11.829 --> 00:21:16.119 Maybe that's going to lead to a need to minister to that person. 00:21:16.900 --> 00:21:18.849 Am I willing to do that? 00:21:19.509 --> 00:21:31.839 That's the kind of decision-- I'm not going to tell you what the right answer is in any specific situation, but that is the kind of decision that God puts before us and asks,"What are you going to do? 00:21:31.960 --> 00:21:33.099 "Are you going to do it as good? 00:21:33.509 --> 00:21:41.710 Are you going to show mercy to that hurting person?" Or let me take it beyond the walls of church on a Sunday. 00:21:41.711 --> 00:21:59.049 You are, like my family when we had kids still in the home, you are rushed on a Sunday morning and getting everybody dressed and in the car, and on the way to church, you're probably already late like we typically were, and you notice your neighbor in some kind of clear distress. 00:21:59.050 --> 00:22:01.839 Maybe she's a single mom. 00:22:01.840 --> 00:22:07.450 Maybe it's the guy across the street who is a widower, and you see what's happening. 00:22:07.451 --> 00:22:11.140 You see the events, the circumstances, that they're in the midst of, and they're in real crisis. 00:22:11.141 --> 00:22:12.549 What do you do? 00:22:12.550 --> 00:22:15.940 You're already late for church, for your Sabbath. 00:22:16.180 --> 00:22:16.809 What do you do? 00:22:16.810 --> 00:22:18.009 What do you do? 00:22:18.010 --> 00:22:23.589 What does it mean to show mercy, to do what is good in those situations? 00:22:24.609 --> 00:22:30.339 God calls us to do good, to be merciful on the Sabbath. 00:22:30.340 --> 00:22:37.150 That often requires us to sacrificially extend ourselves, but I digress. 00:22:37.210 --> 00:22:38.559 Let me come back to the text. 00:22:38.859 --> 00:22:50.619 Jesus continues to challenge them at the end of verse 4:"Is it lawful to save a life or to kill?" And here, he is probing beyond this man. 00:22:50.621 --> 00:22:53.230 Now he's probing at what's in their heart. 00:22:53.230 --> 00:23:01.869 I think he knows their motives at this point, and he's challenging their intentions to try and get him arrested and eventually executed. 00:23:01.871 --> 00:23:11.950 He's pointing out the hypocrisy of them criticizing him while they're actually plotting in their hearts and their minds to have him killed. 00:23:11.951 --> 00:23:22.490 You see, the bigger issue that Mark wants us to see, not just in this this situation, but throughout his Gospel, is what Jesus claimed about himself. 00:23:22.509 --> 00:23:28.690 We saw that at the end of chapter 2, verse 28: Jesus claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath. 00:23:29.740 --> 00:23:33.130 He claimed to be Lord. 00:23:33.130 --> 00:23:52.369 William Willimon puts it this way:"The clash with authority here in this situation, it's not over the rules over what can and can't be done on the Sabbath; it's over who rules." And that was true of them, and that's true of us. 00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:56.630 It's not really, under the surface, about the rules. 00:23:56.660 --> 00:23:59.869 It is about whether he rules over our lives. 00:23:59.871 --> 00:24:01.009 And that is true for them. 00:24:01.010 --> 00:24:03.740 That is true for us. 00:24:03.740 --> 00:24:13.309 Does Jesus, as the Son of Man, does he have God's authority to determine what can be done on the sabbath? 00:24:13.460 --> 00:24:16.279 What fits with God's purpose for the Sabbath? 00:24:16.280 --> 00:24:25.309 And broader than that, does Jesus, does he have authority over everything, over everything in our lives? 00:24:25.310 --> 00:24:26.240 That is the decision. 00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:30.769 That is the question that he calls every one of us to make a response to. 00:24:30.770 --> 00:24:36.680 And what's the response that we see of the religious rulers here at the end of verse 4? 00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:36.680 They kept silent. 00:24:37.940 --> 00:24:40.130 They kept silent because they can't answer this. 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:53.420 They kept silent because they cannot respond to the power and the wisdom of what he said, and their silence actually is evidence that religion for them, it's not what's in their heart. 00:24:54.019 --> 00:24:58.190 Religion for them has become a checkoff list of whether they're keeping the rules. 00:24:58.579 --> 00:25:07.940 Religion for them is a list of works that they can perform, they can go through the motions on, without surrendering their hearts to the authority of Jesus. 00:25:08.730 --> 00:25:09.230 You know what? 00:25:09.230 --> 00:25:17.539 You and I are pulled with those same temptations to go through the motions of the Christian life just with a list of rules that we check off. 00:25:18.019 --> 00:25:25.009 We go through the motions of trying to do these actions just without any real surrender of our heart. 00:25:25.010 --> 00:25:28.609 We experience the same temptation as these religious rulers. 00:25:30.140 --> 00:25:51.410 Verse 5:"After looking around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of heart, he said to the man,'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored." I'm struck by what Jesus shows us here: we see anger in Jesus. 00:25:52.099 --> 00:25:59.119 And by the way, this is the first time in the Gospel of Mark, but this is not the last time we will see Jesus angry. 00:26:00.210 --> 00:26:16.640 I don't know what that does to you, but you know, I have this uneasiness with anger, both because of what anger has done in my life by my expression of sinful anger, and what has happened in my life by others' expression of sinful anger toward me. 00:26:17.269 --> 00:26:24.380 And so I'm both drawn to this and I'm unsettled by this, that Jesus is modeling anger for us. 00:26:25.329 --> 00:26:39.200 I mean, we know both Old Testament and New Testament, Proverbs 4, Ephesians 4, say basically the same thing:"Be angry and yet do not sin." In other words, the Bible acknowledges we're made in the image of God. 00:26:39.201 --> 00:26:54.589 There are things that make us angry because God becomes angry about things, and yet there's a way to sin in our anger, which is usually what happens, but apparently there's a way to not sin, to have righteous anger. 00:26:55.190 --> 00:27:00.349 And here, that's what Jesus is displaying: righteous anger. 00:27:00.351 --> 00:27:06.319 He is angry here at something that could not be tolerated by his holy moral nature. 00:27:07.380 --> 00:27:10.440 And yet his anger here, it's not polluted by sin. 00:27:11.220 --> 00:27:14.009 His anger here is not sinfully expressed. 00:27:15.140 --> 00:27:16.220 So what do we see in this? 00:27:16.221 --> 00:27:21.109 What does he model for us about what it means to be angry and yet do not sin? 00:27:21.111 --> 00:27:35.849 I love this definition of righteous anger by a pastoral counselor by the name of David Powlison, and this is one that I've had to chew on for a while but has been very helpful to me personally in my own struggles with anger. 00:27:35.849 --> 00:27:47.460 Powlison says,"Anger--" and I think he's talking about righteous anger here--"is active displeasure toward something that's important enough to care about. 00:27:47.461 --> 00:28:02.880 It is an active stance that you take to oppose something that you assess as both important and wrong." There is a righteous form of anger. 00:28:03.630 --> 00:28:12.660 In fact, it would be wrong, it would be sinful not to care about things that are important, things that God cares about. 00:28:12.661 --> 00:28:16.500 But the problem is often, usually, in our flesh. 00:28:16.500 --> 00:28:41.190 When we take a stance, we do it in the flesh, and so we become angry about things that aren't important to God, or we fail to become angry about things that are important to God that we should care about, or in the expression of our anger, we do so sinfully and in the flesh. 00:28:41.191 --> 00:28:44.759 But Jesus here, his anger fits this definition. 00:28:44.760 --> 00:28:48.750 He displays anger that is perfectly righteous. 00:28:48.750 --> 00:28:51.089 He cares about what is important. 00:28:51.090 --> 00:28:56.009 He cares about the callousness of these men. 00:28:56.010 --> 00:29:01.200 He cares about God's purposes for the Sabbath. 00:29:01.201 --> 00:29:12.869 He experiences active displeasure toward their perversion of God's purposes and their disregard of this man's suffering and shame, and he takes an active stance to oppose what he assesses as important and wrong. 00:29:14.500 --> 00:29:16.509 He models righteous anger. 00:29:17.470 --> 00:29:19.480 How does his anger remain righteous? 00:29:19.480 --> 00:29:22.029 How does he become angry without sinning? 00:29:22.029 --> 00:29:30.880 Again, what usually happens to me, I suspect it's what happens to you as well, is again, I become angry about the wrong things, things I shouldn't become angry about. 00:29:31.539 --> 00:29:53.319 The things that I should care about and become angered about often pass right by me, and often, in my expression of anger, I'm pulled into fleshly responses: bitterness, rage, abusive speech, quarreling, and fighting, and many others that the Bible marks as works of the flesh. 00:29:54.009 --> 00:29:56.109 And I imagine that's your experience, too. 00:29:57.549 --> 00:30:02.710 Jesus displays a righteous response to what angers him. 00:30:02.711 --> 00:30:07.660 We see it in verse 5, and it's only a little slice of what righteous anger looks like. 00:30:07.661 --> 00:30:12.069 There's much more that we find in scripture, but it's an important slice. 00:30:12.430 --> 00:30:24.400 "He was," notice what the text says,"grieved at the hardness of their heart." I'll come back to him being grieved in a moment here, but let's consider this concept of their hardness of heart. 00:30:24.401 --> 00:30:27.279 The Bible calls us to be tenderhearted. 00:30:27.289 --> 00:30:45.880 When God saves us, Jeremiah says, he gives us a new heart, a tender heart, a heart made of flesh, a heart that the holy spirit can get through to, a heart that truth can take root in, a heart that is pliable to the Holy Spirit and responsive to the Holy Spirit. 00:30:45.880 --> 00:30:48.400 That's a tender heart. 00:30:48.401 --> 00:30:54.009 But hardness of heart is the opposite of being tenderhearted. 00:30:54.099 --> 00:31:07.819 Hardness of heart is the condition of, even when truth is presented to us, we're unwilling to understand it, we're unresponsive to it, and this is such a common spiritual condition, hardness of heart. 00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:14.740 There's over 40 different references to it throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. 00:31:14.740 --> 00:31:16.630 And it's not just unbelievers. 00:31:16.631 --> 00:31:32.710 Unbelievers, of course, we see plenty of examples in scripture of being hardened in heart, but believers, we see in scripture, can develop that clogging of the spiritual arteries, that spiritual hardness of heart that becomes resistant to God's truth, unresponsive to God's truth. 00:31:34.690 --> 00:31:42.339 What is Jesus's response to seeing their hardness of heart that's displayed in their response? 00:31:42.340 --> 00:31:45.369 He is grieved by it. 00:31:45.371 --> 00:31:46.599 He's not angered by it. 00:31:46.601 --> 00:31:49.210 He doesn't respond with abusive speech. 00:31:49.211 --> 00:31:51.799 He doesn't engage them in quarrels. 00:31:51.809 --> 00:31:55.240 He doesn't rage at them. 00:31:55.240 --> 00:32:00.400 He's grieved by it, and the word really means to be deeply grieved. 00:32:00.401 --> 00:32:18.339 The idea I think, there, is that you see that the effect that this is having upon their own souls, as well as other people, is poisonous, is toxic, and this kind of righteous response of anger, it doesn't focus hatred on the person. 00:32:18.340 --> 00:32:25.450 It focuses hatred on the enemy who's behind that person, influencing that person, taking advantage of the situation. 00:32:25.451 --> 00:32:34.569 It sees that person as the spiritual equivalent of a prisoner of war being used by the enemy, and he's grieved by it. 00:32:34.809 --> 00:32:44.779 He's grieved by the effect it's having on this man with a withered hand, the people in the synagogue, he's grieved by the effect it's having on these men and their souls. 00:32:45.140 --> 00:32:50.779 That is a righteous response of anger to hardness of heart. 00:32:52.730 --> 00:33:01.160 Jesus then calls the man,"Stretch out your hand," and when the man obeys, his hand was restored. 00:33:01.960 --> 00:33:08.240 You know, I think it's really worth noting here: Jesus doesn't do anything to heal this man. 00:33:08.990 --> 00:33:10.099 He simply speaks. 00:33:11.450 --> 00:33:15.980 And this man, Jesus does not command him to do anything. 00:33:16.490 --> 00:33:19.190 He just simply extends his hand. 00:33:19.191 --> 00:33:19.849 Do you get that? 00:33:19.851 --> 00:33:27.230 Jesus does not violate even their extra-biblical Sabbath regulations to heal this man. 00:33:27.950 --> 00:33:33.410 This healing occurred without any violation of their Sabbath regulations. 00:33:33.650 --> 00:33:38.779 So do you think they responded with,"Oh, okay, you did it without violating the Sabbath rules. 00:33:38.809 --> 00:33:40.250 Blessings upon you." No. 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:50.930 Verse 6:"The Pharisees went out, and they immediately held council with the Herodians against him as to how they might destroy him." Evidence of their hardheartedness. 00:33:52.549 --> 00:33:57.230 They didn't care whether or not Jesus had actually violated their Sabbath rules. 00:33:57.650 --> 00:34:03.529 In their hardheartedness, they did not care about what God's true purpose and intention for the Sabbath is. 00:34:04.099 --> 00:34:16.550 In their hardheartedness, they refuse to even consider that if Jesus wasn't from God, if he wasn't really the one with the authority that he claimed to have, this healing would have not even occurred, but it did occur. 00:34:16.550 --> 00:34:18.500 They didn't care. 00:34:18.501 --> 00:34:28.429 Their hardheartedness moves them to actually violate their own Sabbath rules by beginning to plot the premeditated murder of Jesus. 00:34:28.431 --> 00:34:30.769 So let me bring it forward to us today. 00:34:30.771 --> 00:34:39.110 When we think about rules, not just Sabbath rules, but our rules, let me just leave you with three questions for you to wrestle through this morning. 00:34:39.110 --> 00:34:43.130 First of all, are you a rule breaker? 00:34:43.130 --> 00:34:44.389 What do I mean by that? 00:34:44.391 --> 00:34:56.659 There is a moral order to the universe that God has established, because God has ultimate authority, and I know we live in a culture that rejects that and rejects that there are any rules, any moral order. 00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:10.670 And so many people, certainly I was there once, maybe you're there as you come here today, you reject any boundaries of moral authority over your lives. 00:35:11.210 --> 00:35:15.260 And you are, just putting it very simply, like I once was: a rule breaker. 00:35:16.159 --> 00:35:21.260 And God says,"Whether you acknowledge it or not, there is a moral order. 00:35:21.289 --> 00:35:45.769 I am the moral authority, and if you violate my rules without turning to the provision of the way to be saved from your violation that I've made possible through Jesus Christ, you will perish, and you will suffer eternally in hell." And you're here this morning, and you're a rule breaker, and you have not turned to God's provision through Christ, that is what God has for you. 00:35:45.771 --> 00:35:48.500 Maybe you're here this morning and you're not a rule breaker. 00:35:48.501 --> 00:35:52.309 You are what I would call a rule follower. 00:35:52.311 --> 00:35:54.349 Maybe you think of yourself as a Christian. 00:35:54.351 --> 00:36:18.079 Maybe you think of yourself as a good person, but somehow, you got like I kind of got for a while growing up in the church, you got this misguided picture that following Jesus, that being a Christian is really about whether you can check off all the rules, you know, the rules of what you should be doing, and the rules of what you should avoid. 00:36:18.081 --> 00:36:43.519 And if religion for you is really about a list of rules that you have some peace-- I don't even know how you get that peace, because I never found it-- by keeping the rules, or religion is about a list of works that you can perform without really surrendering your heart to the authority of Jesus, you are a rule follower, and you'll suffer the same fate apart from Jesus that rule breakers follow. 00:36:45.320 --> 00:36:52.699 Where Jesus wants to bring you is really the third question: are you a follower of the One who rules? 00:36:53.510 --> 00:36:58.519 Are you a follower of the One who has ultimate authority, who reveals himself in Jesus Christ? 00:36:59.059 --> 00:37:26.989 The one, by the way, who perfectly kept all the rules, something you or I can't do, even if that was a way to be saved, the one who fully kept all the rules and then went to the cross in our place and died for our rule breaking and for our twisted around rule following and the one who imputes the righteousness of his perfect rule-following to you and to me when we put our faith in him. 00:37:27.349 --> 00:37:31.130 So when Jesus looks at us, he sees us perfectly righteous. 00:37:32.369 --> 00:37:38.579 Jesus wants to be not just a name to you; he wants to be your savior. 00:37:39.030 --> 00:37:40.559 He wants to be your Lord. 00:37:40.860 --> 00:37:47.820 He wants to be the One who rules over your life, over my life. 00:37:47.820 --> 00:37:49.710 How do you respond to him today? 00:37:49.949 --> 00:37:54.269 Today is yet one more invitation that he gives to you. 00:37:54.271 --> 00:37:55.769 Don't be a rule breaker. 00:37:55.771 --> 00:37:57.329 Don't be a rule follower. 00:37:57.389 --> 00:37:59.889 Be a follower of the One who rules. 00:37:59.889 --> 00:37:59.889 Let's pray. 00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:07.369 What a beautiful name, Jesus. 00:38:08.300 --> 00:38:10.219 What a wonderful name. 00:38:11.460 --> 00:38:14.309 What a powerful name, Jesus. 00:38:16.710 --> 00:38:20.639 Reveal yourself to us, Lord, wherever we are. 00:38:20.641 --> 00:38:28.349 Only you know the thoughts, the mind, the heart of every man or woman, every young man or young woman who you have brought here today. 00:38:28.530 --> 00:38:31.889 You know where each of us stand before you. 00:38:31.909 --> 00:38:42.849 Lord, move rule breakers and rule followers to respond to you and become followers of you, the One who rules. 00:38:42.851 --> 00:38:45.760 We worship you as savior. 00:38:46.690 --> 00:38:47.170 We worship you as Lord. 00:38:47.170 --> 00:38:47.170 Amen.