Luke 6:1-11
Who’s In Charge?
Woodlawn Baptist Church
July 9, 2006
Introduction
Read Luke 6:1-11
One afternoon while I was surfing the web, I came across a website that asked the question, “Was Jesus Sinless?” The author of the site openly declared that Jesus was indeed a sinner and proceeded to give twelve proofs of His sinfulness. One of those so-called proofs was Jesus’ refusal to observe the Sabbath. Exodus 20:9 says, “The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work.” The author, like the Pharisees in verse 2 of our text, found Jesus guilty of breaking this command from God. But not only was Jesus guilty of breaking this law, He was guilty of arguing with Jewish legal authorities who were authorized to interpret the Law.
Was Jesus sinless or not? Of course we say that He was not, but as we read in this account, the Jewish authorities of His day clearly thought that Jesus was most certainly a sinner and a blasphemer. In this message, I want to demonstrate to you that it is Jesus, not the Pharisees or scribes or even you and me who really understand God’s will as expressed in His Word, and it is Jesus alone who is Lord, not only of the Sabbath, but of all of life.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking this passage is about the Sabbath. It is not. What it is about is Jesus’ authority. He calls into question His authority to interpret Scripture and to be God’s agent on earth. Jesus makes clear the fact that it is He who determines what is right and wrong and who really knows what God’s will is. Not only is the passage not about the Sabbath, it is also not about legalism. It’s not about this rule or that rule. It’s not a context between the legalism of the Pharisees and the so-called liberalism of Jesus. It is about none of that.
Today I want you to be clear on this one thing: Jesus Christ is Lord! Augustine said that Jesus Christ is not valued at all until He is valued above all. Today I want you to recognize His great worth and make Him the Lord of your life.
Jesus Declared Himself To Be Lord Of The Sabbath
As Jesus and the disciples passed through the corn field, the Bible says they “plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.” Now the Pharisees evidently had been dogging them and had witnessed this act, so they confronted them about breaking the law. Now to be sure, the Law was very strict about Sabbath observance. It was unlawful for a man to even pick up sticks on the Sabbath day.
The Law also forbade harvesting on the Sabbath, but Luke is careful in choosing his words. They were not harvesting, but plucking. They were not threshing, but rubbing, and there was certainly nothing wrong with eating. But over the years as people looked for loopholes in the Law and found ways to get around it, the scribes and Pharisees began to interpret the Law in more and more strict forms. They tried to define in strict form what every command meant and what it allowed. As a result, harvesting on the Sabbath eventually came to mean even plucking an ear of corn on the Sabbath.
When they asked in verse 2, “Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days?” you need to understand that it was not lawful according to scribal interpretation rather than according to the Law itself. Jesus understood that, so He confronted them on it. He asked them whether they had read the story of David getting the showbread from the tabernacle for himself and his followers when they were hungry.
Jesus knew they had read the story, but did they really understand it? This event and that story don’t really seem to have much in common, but the point is to see that Jesus was saying that He, not these Pharisees, understood the significance of the Scriptures. They may have read them and even tried to interpret them, but they didn’t understand them.
You see, the Pharisees saw the Sabbath as a boundary-keeping mechanism. They saw Sabbath keeping as a sign of faithfulness to and love for God. “If you do not observe the Sabbath, then you are unfaithful. You don’t really love God.” Don’t tell me you don’t understand what they were doing. How many of you notice people not attending church and think to yourself that they do not love God like you do? Or if someone doesn’t tithe or serve or do this or that like you then they aren’t as faithful as you are? We pervert the Word of God by making people measure up to some standard of performance to prove to us that they love God when God never created such a standard.
Who really knew what was appropriate on the Sabbath? Jesus or the Pharisees? As Jesus heard their accusations, He must have thought to Himself, “Who do you think you are trying to tell me what is lawful on the Sabbath? I’m the Lord of the Sabbath!” Whether He thought that or not, He certainly declared Himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath. But not only did Jesus declare Himself to be Lord of the Sabbath…
Jesus Proved Himself To Be Lord Of The Sabbath
As soon as the opportunity presented itself, Jesus proved that He was exactly what He said He was. Notice the drama in the scene. Jesus is in the synagogue teaching. The scribes and Pharisees are there watching Him, waiting for Him to mess up. Jesus doesn’t cow down, but deliberately confronts them. He knew their thoughts, and seeing the opportunity called a man to the forefront.
Jesus then looked at the scribes and Pharisees and asked them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?” Now I want you to notice how carefully Jesus worded His question. He did not ask whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. That would have raised the whole debate on whether it was life-threatening. This man simply had a withered, or useless hand. The healing could have waited for another day. But Jesus did not ask that. He asked whether it was lawful to do good. Is it lawful to save life, or to destroy it? In other words, is it right or wrong to be involved in the restoration of others on the Sabbath?
They did not answer Jesus, so looking around the room, carefully choosing this plan of action, Jesus healed him. In verse 5 Jesus asserted His authority over the Sabbath; here is demonstrates it. We don’t have to wonder what the Pharisees thought about all of this, verse 11 tells us they were filled with madness: filled with rage beyond comprehension over Jesus’ actions. Now I want to ask you something…
Jesus Is Lord! But Is He Your Lord?
You see, there is an unspoken question being asked throughout this passage. Jesus declared Himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath. He then proved Himself to be so. The question that begs an answer is whether He will be your Lord or not. The scribes and Pharisees could not accept that their views of God and Scripture were wrong. They could not accept that God could and would accept a man who was so defiant, but Jesus refused to play their games. They could use Sabbath observance, or any other Law observance as a litmus test for love of God, but Jesus refused to do so.
They had established themselves as the proper authority for knowing the will of God, missing God’s will all along. But I do not think they are much different from many today. The more I study the Word of God the more convinced I am that we are missing the will of God and the blessings of God and even the delight of God because of our wrong notions about the Word of God. Think about it…
• Who determines right from wrong? Is it me? Is it you?
• Who sets our boundaries? How far is too far? The Bible says don’t get drunk. How much can I drink then? The Bible says not to look at a woman with lust in your heart. I can look and admire though can’t I?
• Who establishes our values? What is modest? What is ethical?
• Who gives us true freedom?
Is it me? Is it you? Listen, I don’t decide what is right and wrong, nor do you. I don’t set the boundaries, nor do you. I don’t establish values, nor do you, and we certainly don’t provide freedom. But let me go further. Our culture does not determine what is right or wrong. Our culture cannot set our boundaries. Our culture cannot establish our values.
Our culture says that when you aren’t happy in your marriage any more, it’s okay to move on. Our culture says it’s okay to walk around in your underwear. Our culture says there’s nothing wrong with premarital sex and homosexuality.
Let me go one step further. Not only do you and I not establish these things, and not only does our culture not provide them, but neither does our nation and its laws. There are plenty of things that may be legal, but that doesn’t make them right. They may be legal, but that doesn’t mean it is a good boundary for the child of God. It may be legal, but it may be antibiblical. We just celebrated Independence Day, but our nation cannot provide for us true freedom.
We have this idea of what acceptable Christianity is. We have this idea of what the Word of God allows and does not allow and we live by those ideas, but Jesus comes along and shatters all of that and says that He is Lord, but is He your Lord? Do you allow Jesus to determine what is right in your life? Let me ask you a more difficult one: Do you allow Jesus to set your boundaries? Does Jesus set the boundaries for what you watch? Does Jesus set the boundaries for where you go? Does Jesus set the boundaries for who you date? Does Jesus set the boundaries for the way you treat your spouse?
Let me get to the final question in your bulletin.
• Who says whether I am accepted by God?
The Pharisees had made up their minds that Jesus was not acceptable to God, nor were the disciples. They were in fact offensive to God, but little did they know that Jesus was God, and He knew better than they that by their own rejection of Him they would not be accepted by God.
I wonder how many people have be turned away from God because someone in ignorance made them feel unacceptable to God. How often do God’s own people look at others as they wander through the cornfields of life and misinterpret their actions as offensive to God? Don’t tell me we don’t do it. You may not, but we do. It is such a serious problem among God’s people that Paul wrote the entire book of Galatians about it. We make people jump through hoops to get to God. God on the other hand requires repentance and faith.
Some of you today hurt because you have never experienced what it is like to be fully accepted. Maybe you were never good enough, or you never measured up. Maybe all your life you’ve been called a screw-up, or you’ve made some bad decisions and now you’re labeled. “They don’t accept me. How can God?”
I want you to know that one of the most wonderful things about God is His forgetfulness. He has this remarkable way of forgetting your past when you place your present in His hands. The Bible says that as far as the east is from the west God remembers your sins no more when you repent of them and put your faith in Him. Andrew Murray said that God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him. You can be sure that if you will place your faith in Him He is faithful to meet your needs.
Some of you today may remind God of the Pharisees, always on the lookout for those who aren’t doing what you think they ought to be doing. They aren’t as faithful to church as they ought to be. They don’t tithe like they ought to. They don’t do this and they don’t do that. “Did you see so and so? He brought a drink into the sanctuary!” “I can’t believe that woman! She acts like she doesn’t even own a dress to wear to church!” You’ve created all these litmus tests that everyone has to follow to prove to you, not God, that they love God.
If that is you then I want to urge you to repent of it. It is you that is offensive to God. It is you who may be keeping people from coming to God. It is you who may be spreading that spirit among us. Repent today and recognize that Jesus wants to be the Lord of your life as well!
C.S. Lewis pointed out that many of us, when Christ has enabled us to overcome one or two sins that were an obvious nuisance, are inclined to feel that we are now good enough. He has done all we wanted him to do. But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what He intends for us to be.
You may be quite satisfied with where you are in church or in your relationship with God today, but is He? You may feel like you are a fine example of what Christianity is all about, but does Christ feel that way? Is Jesus truly the Lord of your life? Does He call the shots? Is He in control? Have you given Him free reign in making your decisions? The servant never makes all his plans and then runs them by the Master for His blessing, but that is all too often what we do. In fact, you may feel right now that you’ve gotten yourself into something that Christ never intended for this very reason.
Jesus Christ is Lord! Today God wants you to respond to Him as such. How do you respond to Christ as Lord? Simply by saying, “yes.” That’s it! If you can say no to Him then He is not your Lord. You are. Your friends are. Your job is. Your recreation is. Your money is. Your ideas are. God wants to knock all that off the throne and put Jesus where He belongs in your life. Would you let Him? I love the words of the simple little chorus…
Yes, Lord, Yes,
To your will and to your way.
I’ll say yes, Lord, yes,
I will trust you and obey.
When your Spirit speaks to me,
With my whole heart I’ll agree,
And my answer will be yes, Lord, yes.
It matters not what the question is or what He is leading you to do. The answer must be yes. Is it yours today?
