Grace the unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Let us hear the word of God. As we find written in St. Matthew's Gospel reading there in the 12th chapter beginning at the first verse.
At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn. And if the cycles were not hungered, it began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But then the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, they whole died the cycles do that, which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But he said unto them, have he not read what David did when he was not hungered?
They said that were with him, how we entered into the house of God and did eat the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests. Or have he not read in the law how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple proclaim the Sabbath and are blameless? But I say unto you that in this place is one greater than the temple. But if he had known what this mean that I will have mercy and not sacrifice, he would not have condemned the guiltless.
For the Son of Mine is Lord, even of the Sabbath day. And now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. Good morning, dear friends, in Christ Jesus, you who are here in God's house, you also, Christ and friends, who are worshiping with us by means of the radio.
This is a beautiful day, isn't it? And I hope that all of us are really glad that we're alive. And I hope that all of us are thankful to God that we do have the privilege at this time to worship our God. You heard me mention that today is the 18th Sunday after Trinity.
We are slowly coming to the end of another church here. And the gospel that I just read, this text, it tells about an incident that took place up in the province of Galilee outside of the city of Capernaum in the early year of Christ Galilee and ministry. And this is what happened. It was on a Sabbath day, arresting Jesus and the disciples were going through a green field.
Now the disciples were hungry, and so as they went through the green field, they picked up some of the heads of the grain in the field, loved them in their hands, and they eat them. It also so happens that there were some Pharisees who saw that. These were the holier than all individuals in Jesus' day, and they were taking the gas, and they were very much agitated to see this. We must understand what it was that troubled them when they went to Jesus and complained.
It was not that the disciples had stolen some grain. A God had arranged that any hungry man could win to a field and could fill himself with food, and that was perfectly alright as long as he didn't take any food with him. So this was not the thing for which they had complained, but it was the fact that he had been taking the heads of the grain and in rubbing it in their hands, and in eating they had worked on the rest day. And the Pharisees said they had violated the rest day, and so they went to Jesus, and they said, filter realize that your men are doing something which is unlawful on this day, and then Jesus had somewhat to say to them, and in connection with what he said, he makes a tremendous statement about himself.
He told them that day in that grain field. He said, but the son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath day. I want you to know he told them that day that I am the Lord. I am the master.
I am the ruler, even of the Sabbath day, the rest day. I am the Lord of that day too. You know, I wonder how many of us have ever stopped to realize what an amazing statement this is from the lips of Jesus. And we ought to look at it this morning.
He says to you and me, speaking from the Word of God, as he stands there again in that grain field, right outside of preparing on Jesus assures you and me that he is no less. And you, then the Lord of the Sabbath day, he is no less than the master, the ruler of the rest day, a magnificent Lord, a tremendous Lord, worth knowing and worth having and worth keeping. And you and I, this morning, we may say, well, it kind of leaves me cold. The fact that he says that he is Lord, even of the Sabbath day of the rest day, we may say to yourself, I don't see that that's anything to be so wonderful.
What does that fact prove about him? Does that make him any nearer to me? What joy does that give me particularly? What happiness or what blessing does that add to me?
He can feel the fact that you say he needs such a tremendous statement that he was the Lord, the master of the ruler of the rest day of the Sabbath day. And let's look at that very statement and Jesus in a shory in you and me that he is the Lord, no less of the Sabbath day would also assure me that that brings you and me joy, that brings you and me happiness and that brings you and me blessing, that is absolutely second to none. It is incongable. It couldn't be any greater.
The joy that ought to be yours in mind because he stood in a green field one day and he, the stranger of Galilee, said that he was no less of them than the Lord of the Sabbath. And he joined by me and said, what joy is mine? What happiness comes to me? What blessing comes to me because Jesus cleaned one day that he was no less than the Lord of the rest day?
And as on the basis of the Word of God you and I look at that Jesus would assure us that he is no less than the Lord of the Sabbath and therefore he is magnificent, he is worth having and he is worth keeping because the joy that comes a second to none for the first place he assures you and me of this, that being the Lord of the Sabbath day, being the master of the rest day, he is no less than the Lord of creation. He is no less than the one who created the universe as you and I see it. You may say, wait a minute, preacher. Do you mean to say that Jesus of Nazareth was the Lord of creation, that he is the one who brought into existence this universe the heavens and the earth?
That's exactly what I mean because that's exactly what the Word of God said. Listen, the God that originated the rest day is exactly and identically the same God who created the universe. In the Word of God we know that our God is one God and yet three persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And in the Word of God there are times when creation is attributed to the Father.
There are times when it is attributed to the Son as John. In the prologue of his gospel calling Jesus the Word says that without him was not anything made that was made and in Genesis the Holy Spirit is mentioned, has also participated in creation. Therefore because he is the Lord of the rest day, he originated the rest day, it came from him and he who originated it was no less than the creator of this universe. When we go back to Genesis we read that, the next list account in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Jesus the Son of God from eternity, God the Son. He also is credited with the creation of the world and we are told in the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep in the spirit of God, hovered on the face of the waters. And then God, God the Son, this lowly Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Son of God from eternity said let there be light and there was light and the evening and the morning were the first day. And then this Jesus, this God the Son said that there be a firmament to divide the waters above and the waters need expanse and there was the sixth spance and he called the Dan that which was above the heavens and you and I say we look out into the expanse of the heavens and we talk about infinity and scientists tell that it is endless in distance and the evening and the morning were the second day.
Then we are told that he said let the waters gather in one place and let the dry ground come forth and he called the waters the seas and the dry ground plant and that there comes seed bearing herbs and all manner of fruits and all manner of shrubs. There was food on the earth and the evening and the morning were the third day. It was Jesus of Nazareth, the eternal God the Son who created this universe and then he said again the sun like the earth by day and the moon by night and he put the stars in their places in the eternal constellations that we see in the heavens. And as we look up into the galaxy to know that every son that you and I can see with our eye which is the star it's greater than the sun that likes this earth and has its own solar system.
It was this Jesus standing in a green field who because he was the originator of the Sabbath day was also the creator of the Lord of this universe and the evening and the morning were the fourth day and then he put light birds in the air and foul in the air and fishes in the sea and the evening and the morning were the fifth day and then when the sixth day king he was the one who created animals on the earth and then he said to let us make man in our own image and God in kind who didn't have a body he fashioned a body like he wanted this feature to look and then he breathed into the nose holes the breath of life and man became a living soul and man was made in the image of God. We are a soul and we have a body and that soul has imagination and that soul has memory made in the very image of God. We again his highest visible creation he made man in his own image and then the evening and the morning were the sixth day and then we read and then God rested on the seventh day and God blessed him and hallowed it and God sanctified it. When Jesus stood in that green field up there near comparing him that day and said I am no less than the Lord of the rest day.
That in mind he was giving you and neither assurance that he's worth having and he's worth holding on to the cause he in originating that rest day was also the same God that brought into existence this universe and you say well what joy comes to mean the philosopher turns and he asked himself for something that he can't answer. He asked himself why this universe, why man on this planet earth and all he can do is philosophize and guess but when you turn to the word of God and do what I say why did God create this universe, why did God make a being called man in his own image, he made this universe for you and for me. That God's answer, it was that you and I should have dominion over to this universe stands as an expression of God the son's love for you and me and buried mine even before sin came into the world. He performed the first marriage ceremony of Adam and Eve.
The one thing we have left from the perfection of creation is marriage and therefore we say what did God plan had sin never come into the world. God plans that again there would be children born, that there would be no sin in this world that again this world made for man, that man could love God and God could love man and that there would be this bliss and heaven too, that there would be no death but some kind of translation, some kind of a rapture whereby man created an image of God. This was God plan that man should be raptured into eternal heaven even greater than the creation that he made for you and me his most precious possession. When he stood in the green field near Capernaum, let me tell you it was an amazing statement when he said with us on a man as Lord even of the Sabbath, the joy that come, this is what God planned, God the Son and therefore we have to say to ourselves in this world even those in this come into it.
What say he's not only worth knowing and having but he's worth holding on to and I'm going to hold on to him the Lord the Sabbath because he's no less than the Lord who created the heavens and the earth and therefore we ought to say to ourselves because I'm going to hold on to him I'm going to trust him. I'm going to trust him even though sin came into this world. He still controls this universe which he created and because he did there's no reason for you and me to be afraid. We look out on this world today and we say it's right, it looked terrible.
We say look at 90 miles off of our shore here there's evidence that the Russians are putting in submarine paces and we say what's that going to mean for our country. Then we go over to Vietnam and we say our boys and sons and daughters engaged in war and bloodshed over there. Then we go to the Middle East and we say look what's happening over there. Here you have the Jewish nation and the Jewish nation saying to the Arabs God gave us Palestine when he gave us land to Abraham and yet the Arab pain to the Jew but you lost it and it became ours and you've got to get out and we'll drive you into the Mediterranean sea and when you have these irresistible forces coming to a nice day what's going to happen.
Then our president going to Rome today and if again you saw yesterday where the communist rose up and in there marches against him and they smurching our flag and we say how dangerous and we say what's happening in this world but listen through it all down in a wheat field right out of Capernaum. This manger of galleys that I am the Lord and the less of the Sabbath. I originated the rest day therefore I created the world. He still rules.
You ever get out your catechism sometime and you get wondering and you get filled with worry and you say what is coming. When I was in warms, Germany and in the Lutheran shirts there on the walls of the church in warms they have the massless explanations of Luther's three articles of the Christian creed on the walls and large and blazing letters. You know you all get out your catechism sometime and I said they were in the tricks and barms and of course they're all in Germany. One starts a clave.
What does this mean to the first article? How many of us have got not our catechism who said to ourselves this Christ who again controls the world because he absolutely created it that we can say I believe that God has made me and all creatures that he has given me my body and soul and eyes and ears and all my members my reason and all my senses and skill preserves them. Also clothing and shoes meet and bring house and home, wife and children field and cattle and all my goods that he daily enriches and provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger, guards and protects me from all evil and all this curly out of poverty, divine goodness and mercy without any marriage or worth of this in me for all which it is my duty to thank and praise the servant of the him.
This is most certainly true can you have that peace of mind that you and I don't have to be afraid of tomorrow because up in Galilee outside of Capernaum Jesus stood in a green field one day and said, I am the Lord, no less of the Sabbath of the rest day. I am the creator and the sustainer of the world, nothing to be afraid of. We said, what a tremendous statement. The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
I am the Lord. I am the master. I am the Lord even of the rest day and therefore that means joy, the second to none. That means blessings that come to you and me because of that fact.
That couldn't be any greater because in the second place he reminds you and me that I was again the very real Lord of the Sabbath. He is no less than the Lord of our salvation. You say because he is the Lord of the Sabbath, he is the Lord of our salvation? Oh yes.
Why so because he was the fulfillment of the Sabbath? You may say why did God ascite this rest day? Why did God rejoice in it when you go to Mount Sinai in Arabia when those that have the children of Israel, they state that you recall about here and there God gave the Ten Commandments and remember the one he said, remember the Sabbath day, remember the rest day to keep it holding him and say what did God mean there? It was to be kept holy this rest day.
What was the purpose of it? There at Sinai God said, I am setting aside the tribe of Levi. It shall again, it shall take care of the tabernacle that you are going to build. And I am setting aside the family of Aaron.
He shall be the first type priest. And therefore God at Sinai said, this is the way I want you to worship me. You are to slay bulls and goats and lands. There is to be shedding of blood.
And God arranged that on each day there would be a lamb that would be slaughtered and sacrificed. And on the rest day there would be two lambs that would be slaughtered and sacrificed. You and I say, what did it mean? Did the blood of bulls and the goats ever take away sin?
And you and I know that it couldn't possibly do so. But whenever a lamb was slain, this was, as Paul says in Colossians, this was a shadow of Christ, the reality who was to come. Every lamb that was slaughtered, every time blood was put on the mercy, see, it pointed to God's lamb. It pointed to Jesus who was going to come into the world and who would be the fulfillment.
So as they sacrificed their lambs and especially on the Sabbath and look forward to the lamb of God, in his shed blood, there would be forgiveness. And therefore he is the Lord of salvation because he was the fulfillment of the very purpose, the very aim, the very inner heart of the Sabbath, the rest that there would be a convocation, and there would be again the sacrifice of lamb. Jesus is its fulfillment. And therefore think of this joy that comes to us because he was the Lord of the Sabbath Day, having completed it as our Savior, that he is the one that offers the forgiveness of sins to us, deliverance of eternal death, everlasting salvation, the resurrection of our body and any Trinity in heaven.
It was the restoration of paradise that was lost. When he came into the world, what a Christ. When sin spoiled this creation of his, this tremendous plan. Therefore he came as the fulfillment of that rest day as the lamb of God, that in his shed blood all should be restored.
Even our bodies raised from the dead. Paradise redeemed a new heaven and a new earth. Why? Because he was the Lord of the Sabbath.
I challenge you, you name me any greater joy, any greater happiness, any greater blessing that can come than that which comes in the fact that Jesus is the Lord of the rest day. He is therefore the Lord of our salvation. He has provided everything restored, everything in God's original plan in the redemptive work because he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Therefore that ought to mean this.
What's it? He's worth holding on to it. I'm not going to lose him in spite of the way things look in the world and we ought to be so grateful that again he went to all the trouble that he did in order to come into the world. Think of the end.
To create a world for us, knowing that it was going to fall into sin. To go ahead and establish a rest day and to establish a way of worship. The plan should be slaughtered and goes, pointing to him and that he should end up on the cross. That he, God, should die in your stead in mind.
That he should bear the equal of an eternity in hell for you and me. When we say that kind of a Lord, who is the Lord of the rest day, he's worth having an ungonded hold on to him. And then again, there comes this joy that we say to ourselves, he must love you and me regardless of the adversities that come. We sometimes say, do we not?
And we cry out and say, God, why did it all come to us? What have I done? Why this adversity? Why this trouble?
But when you and I can look at him and say that one day this manger of galleys stood in the green field and he said that he was the Lord even of the rest day. He again was the Lord of salvation. He loves me. He loves me dearly.
There is no one that he loves more in spite of my adversities because he has provided full and complete redemption for me, paradise, regained, lost by sin. And I challenge you. You name me a greater blessing and a greater joy than that. He stood in a green field.
You know, we were liable to pass this in over. He was the Lord of the Sabbath day, Lord of the rest day. And we fail to see just what that means. What a tremendous Lord.
What a tremendous master because he reminds you of me that it also means that as the Lord of the again of this rest day, the Lord of the Sabbath, he would assure you neither. He's no less than the Lord of the New Testament Sunday the first day of the week. You say, what happened that day when he was going through this green field with the 12th and they had gone ahead? Well, you say they were going ahead and they were actually shucking green.
And this was supposed to be the labor, but they were hungry. This was the thing. Jesus turned to the Pharisees and he said, well, he said, don't you remember what David did? He said, when David was fleeing from his son, after someone he had soldiers with him.
And he came to the tabernacle. They were hungry and the only food that was there were the show Brad loaves armed the altar. And God had said that that bread should be only for the priest. But he said, remember the priest gave this bread to David.
He's been deviated. And David was their patron saint and the Pharisees would never again accuse David of having done something wrong. But Jesus was showing these men were hungry. Yes, but after all the bread intended for the priest's normal, the purification of mercy.
And then Jesus had happened to read in the law that the priests in the temple, they work on the rest day. They've got to get the lambs ready for slaughter. And yet they are not called guilty. You say they are guilty.
They're innocent. How about those? And Jesus was trying to say, here is one greater than the temple. He was saying, if you just understood what God said, he quoted Hosea, the God that I will have mercy and not sacrifice that you would understand.
What was Jesus saying? He's trying to explain the original purpose of the rest day. The God had forbidden work, but it was supposed to be a blessed thing. God had not said you can't do any kind of work, even at the expense of mercy.
God said, mercy is always right. You can always show me. He said, Jesus at one time said he's got an auction, that's all in the fifth. Well, you'll pull him out on the salmon.
In other words, he's saying, God never forbade any act of mercy and kindness if a child is lying with a horrible fever on the rest day and the old captain. And once the drink of water doesn't matter, I'm sorry. I can't get you to drink water. That's where we've got to be tomorrow.
God said, I want mercy. I want mercy is always all right. Yeah, okay. And you don't forego mercy at the expense of sacrifice or rep.
Jesus was trying to show them that these men were hungry. And therefore, God never forebowed all where he's of mercy always. But to say, what happened to this Sabbath? It's rather amazing.
Paul in Colossians tells us this, that Christ again, he abrogated it. Christ unknolded. Christ abolished it. Why?
This bothersome people in Colossians 2 16, we're told that no man judge you and meet her in drink or in respect of the new moon or the holy days or the Sabbath day. Paul says, you are free as regards the Sabbath. There is no command in the New Testament to rest on the Sabbath. There is no command that we've got to worship on Saturday.
There is no command in the New Testament that we have to continue to offer up bulls, lambs and goats on the rest day. Remember when Jesus died on good Friday, when he died, the curtain in the temple was rent from the top to the bottom of the holy of holy was exposed, where only the high priest could win once a year. It ended all of this sacrificial offering of lambs and of goats it was done. And remember that therefore, when in the year 70 when Titus destroyed the temple of Jerusalem, that ended temple worship.
The two has never had a temple to this day. He's got his nation. And even though he had taken the rest of Jerusalem, that temple is now a mosque. It's a mohannical in month that you can have it.
He's getting ready to celebrate Jung Kippur, the day of atonement. And on the day of atonement, there was always sacrifice. But you haven't been able to sack of a wine because he doesn't know who is the descendant of Aaron. No Jew can ever say he's from the tribe of Uygh, but he doesn't know.
In the persecutions that have come, he doesn't know what tribe he's from. No Jew can ever verify by record that he is the son of Aaron and that he could be high priest. The very fact that all templeers that you hasn't had a temple since the year 70, it's done. It's avrogate and let no man judge you, you're free.
The Sabbath day is gone. But the New Testament does say, don't forsake the assembly of yourselves together. What has happened in the Christian church? I throw us on the first day of the week, Sunday.
He appeared to the cycles on Sunday night behind locked doors. The following Sunday night he appeared. The Holy Spirit was poured out on the first day. So what happened?
When the Christian church became predominantly Gentile, Gentiles had no knowledge of a Sabbath or the rest day of a Saturday or a ball clean of lamps and bolts and goats. So there came a transition that Sunday was called the Lord's Day. This was the Lord's Day. Every Sunday, a resurrection anniversary, the risen Lord.
And therefore this Christ who stood in that wheat field and said, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. Once you need to know that he is the Lord of the New Testament, Sunday, where we have the privilege of assembling ourselves in contact and having the living Christ tell you in the service for goodness, you are His life, you are His salvation right now in exchange for faith. You need me to agree to that. I don't care who you are.
I don't care what you have done or what I have done right now. You need one of us. And I talk to the Lord in the thinking we have been in life in our sins. If we turn to him right now, this Lord of the Sabbath, who again is the living Christ today, I am sorry for my sins.
And I ask you to forgive me that there is forgiveness right now. You and I have become joined here with Christ to be turned to life and have the assurance that the living Christ will come and he will take us to heaven. There is no greater joy than that. And therefore we ought to say, he is the Christ I am going to hold on to.
And I am going to keep. I am going to be determined to do that. Then Sunday ought to be a tremendous day. A joy to come in and have a living Christ speak to us to His word.
This is the thing that He wants. We don't forsake ourselves in getting together. Let Sunday be a little bit of heaven on earth. Let us decide how we shall spend it, spending Sunday and every day of the week, living to His glory, showing mercy and kindness and good will to others.
And above all, looking forward to that great peace and that great rest which the word of God says, remaineth to the children of God. As we come into God's house, we say, this Lord of the Sabbath, He is abrogated. He unknowed the Old Testament. Rest day, but He is the Lord, the living Lord of the Church.
I had the privilege of worshiping Him. This is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. You and I live it through His glory to honor to magnify Him.
Above all, a little bit of heaven on earth. And we say, here is where He quenches me to the fact that they remaineth. Therefore, the rest of the children of God. You know, when I was in the Holy Land, I stood on non-phesus, locked the height.
I stood on me for another name for it. And if you recall that instance, that's where Moses stood with God one day. Moses is 120 years old. And God again brought him right to Mount Pisgah.
And he was ready to eniquise his command. A younger man, Joshua, was going to go across the Jordan. Here he was with God standing there at Mount Pisgah. There's something happens to you when you stand there.
You feel like ticking off your shoes because you're on Holy Crown. It was that place Moses knew that he would not lead the children of Israel over the Jordan. He was weary. He had led them for 40 years in the wilderness.
God knew that he was weary. And God said, Moses, look at the land flowing with milk and honey. When I stood there, here was the mighty Jordan, mighty not because of its size, but mighty because of the great part it plays in God's history. And I stood there and I thought, this is where Moses stood.
Look across the Jordan to the west of the Mediterranean. And looking into the north and looking to the south, I thought for a moment I was Moses and the tears came. And I thought, what a place to stand. Moses, looking at the land flowing with milk and honey.
And God said, Moses, you're weary. Moses, you're tired. I've got something better than this land flowing with milk and honey. I'm going to take you through death to that rest which remaineth for the children of God.
And God buried Moses. I don't know what's going to come. When we have enemies outside of our nation and bitter enemies within it, men who would destroy it yet today and men who would kill and slaughter, I don't know. But I do know this, that you and I, with the Lord of the rest, who is the Lord of the New Testament, Resurrection Day, you and I can come in and we can say, but Lord, there remain at the rest to the people of God.
We say, how many of us get pretty weary? I've had 39 years in the ministry. I wouldn't take a million for the 39 years that I've had, but I'm very thankful that I'm at the ending and not at the beginning and getting to the ending and oh, there's so much to look forward to. You see, you get weary and yet this living Christ, there's every maneth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Oh, you can look forward to all to be near the ending and it's tremendous because up there in the fields right outside of Capernaum, your Lord and nine, Sid, one day and said, I am the Lord of the rest day who assures you and me there, there's still a rest coming in. The rest that are the dead was dying, the Lord from henceforth said the Spirit, but they may rest from their labors. It's not in activity. It's going to be a rest from weariness and the entire and grittiness of loneliness and weariness of grief and arty and pain.
They remain at their for a rest. Oh, listen, having that kind of a road, we ought to walk it on Tipton, say, not going to be too long. There's a rest we could sing on the glory road, oh, as we look at this land with milk and honey, Jerusalem, the golden with milk and honey, bless beneath thy contemplation, sink, heart and voice of press. I know not, oh, I know not, but joy is the way that's there.
What radiance the ablory what this beyond compare, they stand those halls of Zion, all tubal that was song and bright with many an angel and all the martyrth are all. The prince is ever in them. The daylight is serene, the pastors of the blessed are decked with glorious sheen. Oh, they remain at their for a rest.
Let's walk it on Tipton, even though it'd be dark because the sphanger of Galilee stood in a green field. And one day out of a tremendous statement, the Son of Man is Lord, even of the rest day, tremendous, knowing, work, having, thank God, we're keeping. Amen. The peace of God which passes all human understanding, keeping your nights, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.