Law & Grace - Matthew 12:1-21 "Sabbath Questions"
Matthew 12:1-21 · Vern Peterman · Dec 11, 2011
Law & Grace, No. 47
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926255445492

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Before we move into the passage, I'd like to introduce the electives beginning next year. And by the way, this will be on the 8th, not the 1st. We won't try to start electives on New Year's Day. I'd like to have Mike come up and talk to us here first because one of them will be Identification Truths, Identification Truths Plus. What can you tell us about this, Mike?

Well, what we're going to study is, the passages we'll be working on are John 17, Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8. I would encourage anybody who has not been through the identification class to come to this class because it's the foundation on which everything else we teach. And so if you haven't been in the identification class, I encourage you to come because it sets up and sets a foundation for all the other books that Paul wrote and all of the doctrine and the principles that we teach here. So Courtney is going to help teach and Randy and so you're all welcome. I got a question. You've had people take this class more than once. Why would that happen? Thanks. I don't have to answer that, do I? I think that's a good question because even as a teacher of it, Every single time I go through it, I learn more.

As the Bible is a progressive revelation of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's really what's happening here. When a believer understands that through his identity with Christ on the cross, that he was separated from all that's ungodly, and he was united to the resurrected Christ. That's a revelation that goes on through your whole life. And the more you know about it and the more you understand it, the freer you are. Okay, thank you.

I'd like to have Roger come up and introduce the elective on Philippians. I'm a little bit shorter than that. Philippians actually, one of our desires here at Holly Hills is to have at least one Bible book each term, each year, I don't know, some time period. And so we have chosen Philippians. It's one of the, what's called the prison epistles. Prison epistles are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon. And it's really a fabulous book.

I mean, I've started looking into it. We've looked at it. It hasn't been taught here. I think Vern taught it last about, It's been seven, eight years ago. So I would encourage you, if Philippians kind of matches up with, you know, if you want to get into scripture, we're going to do it verse by verse. Actually, Bob Eccles is going to be teaching with us and Jim McCulley. And then Jeremy Dones is going to join us a little bit later on when his schooling kind of settles down. And so if you want to go verse by verse through Philippians, that's the class for you.

OK, thanks. We'll also have Bible backgrounds for the first six months, and that'll transition into church history. The thing is, we did offer this series, oh, it's been about maybe eight years ago, something like that. There are some things to update in it. For one thing, there have been archaeological discoveries. that have been made since that time. We're also going to be increasing an emphasis on apologetics, defense of the faith, based on historical and archaeological discoveries. So even if you've taken that previously when we offered it, oh, about eight years ago, it'll still be some new and rich things in it. So at any rate, I'd like to have you consider those. If we don't have them up now, we'll have them soon.

Sign up sheets. They're up, okay? And it's good to have people sign up, and here's a couple of reasons why. Sometimes there are materials, and I know in the Bible backgrounds, church history, we've got a number of brochures that I'm talking about, you know, fairly lengthy fold-out kinds of things. We have to order those ahead of time. We'll have published materials. So materials and then also location. We have to have an appropriate location for the class. So if you can sign up, that really helps us in planning for each of the electives.

All right. They begin on January 8th, so not New Year's Day. Second Sunday. Now, I want to warn you, today's passage involves both squirrels and real estate. Just so you brace yourself. So you need to be aware of that before we enter into this. Okay? All right. Now, you have on the top half of the first page here this, I call it a Matthew chiasm and outline. Now, if you're just joined us, a chiasm is not a medical condition. Okay?

It is a way of outlining a book or even a passage that is more in the nature of a mirror image in written form. As Matthew wrote this book, He constructed the book like this, beginning with Christ as King and initiating ministry to the nation of Israel, proceeding in a certain sequence, turning in the middle on the parables of the kingdom, which will begin January 1st. And then finally ending up with Jesus as Savior and initiating ministry to the church. So there is a definite pattern and it's a reflective pattern that Matthew used to write the book. And so anyway, just so we look at it, it's this part here in the opposition that we are starting in chapter 12 today.

And it will be on New Year's Day, we'll begin the parables of the kingdom, the kingdom perspective. And it is there where we will introduce the moose. And that's January 1st, the moose, I don't know whether it's the year of the moose, we'll see. But at any rate, if you're puzzled as to what that is, ask somebody who looks like they know.

Now, into the passage. Matthew 12, starting with verse 1. I'm telling you, this was just a Jewish snack. Okay? Now, maybe you're thinking of falafel. Maybe you're thinking of hummus. Maybe you're thinking of chicken livers. I hope not. Maybe matzah bread. No, it's not that.

The disciples became hungry. And so, as they became hungry, they're passing by a grain field. And so they picked up some grain by hand to eat it, to take the edge off their hunger. And that was just the original intent. Now, you may be thinking, well, that sounds like they're stealing. Well, it might have been, except for the fact that the book of Deuteronomy actually gives permission for people to do this. And it writes it this way. Deuteronomy 23, 25 says, when you enter your neighbor's standing grain, not if, but when. Then you may, so there's an if, right? You may pluck the heads with your hand. So the idea is you could have a snack, right? You're not going to go in and harvest your neighbor's field, but you couldn't have a snack there out of your neighbor's field.

That's okay. So what the disciples did was allowed right there in the Law of Moses. It was completely permissible for them to do that. So, so far, so good. They're not stealing, and it's not a problem. The Law of Moses allowed this, so they kind of take the edge off their hunger there.

What we have is the Pharisees coming into the picture. The topic that the Pharisees chose to harp on here and oppose Jesus with is the Sabbath. Sabbath means the seventh, right? The Pharisees often made keeping the Sabbath the issue. What we find is that shows up in each of the four Gospels. It shows up repeatedly. And here's something interesting. There are places where you can see Jesus intentionally healed on the Sabbath.

It wasn't like, hey, I'm here to irritate these people, but he wanted to make a point. He wanted to make a point that I'm not subject to these Sabbath rules that you guys have come up with. And healing on the Sabbath is perfectly okay. So he did it not to just irritate the life out of the Pharisees, but to make the point. And there's another very important point that he made as well. We'll see that shortly. Jesus didn't try to counter the Pharisees something like, but we're not under law, we're under grace. That's not the approach he used because that's what the Apostle Paul would write, right?

Romans 6. Instead, we're going to see as we go through this passage, Jesus turned the issue from being the Sabbath, that's the issue that the Pharisees wanted to harp on, to being about who Christ is. The Pharisees wanted to say, the Sabbath is the issue, and you're breaking it. Jesus said, you guys don't understand. First of all, I'm not under your made-up rules, the rules you invented. I'm not under that. But secondly, you guys don't understand who I am.

The Sabbath was part of the Law of Moses, one of the 613. 613 laws in the Law of Moses. 365 of them, like the number of days in a year, are things not to do, right? It was the fourth commandment of the sacred ten. Now, sometimes what will happen, Christians will get all wrapped around the axle about ten. And the reality is, those were still just a part of the 613 given through Moses to the Jews, right? These are the ones that God wrote out on stone tablets given to Moses. Now, Exodus 28 through 10, first part of the verse, reads like this, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh is a day of Sabbath of the Lord your God. So they were prohibited, actually capital punishment, was to be carried out. They were prohibited from working on the Sabbath day, sundown Friday to sundown Saturday is what we would call it. Well, they would in no wise call it Saturday because that's named after a pagan god. So it's the seventh day of the week, right? But that was their rule, not one that they invented, but given through Moses.

Now, just to kind of get some perspective here, Israel and the church, two peoples of God, and two principles. The Israelites were baptized into Moses when we went through 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We saw that. 1 Corinthians 10.2 says that the Jews, as they went through the water and under the cloud, were baptized into Moses.

We have been baptized into Christ in five particular events. in his crucifixion, in his burial, in his resurrection, ascension, and seeding. We celebrate this time of year, Christ's birth. Were we identified with Christ in his birth? No. The Bible doesn't say that. But in these five ways, his crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding, we were identified with Christ. If you're a believer today, you have this new history in those five things. It is a new spiritual history.

So Romans 6.3 and Galatians 3.27 are the verses that lay out that we've been baptized into Christ, made to be in Christ.

God himself gave the Israelites the law of Moses. Sometimes you'll have Christians trying to avoid legalism talking bad about the law. And I think we have to be careful about that. God gave the law to Moses. But it was given to Moses for Israel. And all of Israel, as they passed under the cloud and through the sea, they were baptized into Moses and the law that he gave. Christ's death on the cross ratified that new covenant. Remember, as we went through the book of Genesis, here is Abraham and God made a covenant with him. What did Abraham do? He carried out a blood ratification. Here is God making a covenant with Noah. What did Noah do?

He had sacrifices, a blood ratification. Christ's death on the cross accomplished a number of things, but one of the things that it was was a blood ratification. of the New Covenant that God had made with Israel. For us, that same death on the cross, which we shared with Him, because we were crucified with Him, caused us to die to the same law of Moses. So for the Jews, Christ's death on the cross ratified the New Covenant. That same death where we were identified with Christ in that death, we were co-crucified with him, caused us to die to that same law.

Isn't that interesting? Law was the Jews, their reigning principle. Grace is our reigning principle. This is Romans 5, 17-21. It says that grace is the reigning principle for us in the body of Christ. And when we say principle, what do we mean? It's not that guy in the office at school. It's a different spelling. But aside from that, principle is either a fundamental truth or the way things work. And it's the second definition that Paul intends here in Romans 5. It's the way things work in the body of Christ.

The Jews were told, this is Sermon on the Mount stuff, the Jews were told, you had better forgive or what? You won't be forgiven. If you want to be forgiven, then you'd better forgive. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus and says to them, forgive one another. This is Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32. Forgive one another as God in Christ, past tense, has forgiven you. Under grace, the forgiveness is assumed and is the motivation for forgiving. Under law, you forgive because if you don't, you won't be forgiven.

Right? Okay. And that's another thing. Okay. Following the typical pattern of the Pharisees, they came up with extra laws to make sure you didn't break the one that was given. So, for example, we just read the law, you know, okay, you've got the Sabbath day, keep it holy, don't work on it. Right? Exodus. We just read it. So there it is.

So you know how many laws the Jews came up with in order to make sure you didn't break that law? More than 40 extra laws to make sure you didn't break that one. And so it was one of those, uh-oh, now what do I do? I got all kinds of rules. I got rules against the rules and rules for the rules and rules that conflict with the rules. You have on page two, And it's about a half page. Here is the list of most of the rules they had about what was work that you couldn't do on the Sabbath. Okay? Isn't it nice you've got the list? Of fun. Right? Here is this list.

Planting, and sowing, and plowing rather, and reaping. And matter of fact, that's the one that the Pharisees are about to accuse Jesus' disciples of. Now, I won't go through all the rest. I mean, they have things like extinguishing a fire or igniting a fire. Well, guess what? We have this thing called electricity. So, the Jews have figured out, as the Orthodox, observant Jews, have figured out that if you flip a switch on, that's work.

So on the Sabbath, guess what you can't do? Flip a switch on. And you also can't extinguish it, right? So that means you can't turn it off. Hope you enjoy sleeping with the lights on, right? No. What they do is they will either have timers or they will actually hire a Gentile, who's of course not under the law, to come in and turn the lights off and on, right? So that's permissible.

And it goes on to all sorts of things. You know, elevators. The elevators in a Jewish building on the Sabbath, they stop at every floor because pushing the button is work. And you can't do that, so the buttons don't operate, the elevator stops at every floor. That's the Sabbath elevator rule for the Jews.

Anyway, going on and on. So it's reaping is the one they're about to accuse Jesus and the disciples of breaking. And then we also have this sideways one here. And I put it sideways because that's the only place I could figure out to fit it. So sometimes I get sideways when I look at the law, right?

Okay. So their laws permitted medical assistants to save a life, deliver a baby, and to circumcise. Now what we're going to find is that As they go through this issue here, this isn't about saving a life, so it's not a life or death situation. Oh, and by the way, you could save a life if it was a Jewish life, but not for a Gentile life. Okay? Alright, because that's the rules. Okay.

Jesus always pointed the Jews back to the original law of Moses. We saw this as we went through Matthew chapter 5. Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, but I tell you. He points back to, repeatedly, the original law of Moses without all these incrustations, without all the extras, like this list. So, he turned away any attempt to tinker with the law of Moses by adding on all the traditions that accumulated.

He even intentionally would violate their extra rules in order to make the point. And this is a case in point. Now, the Pharisees come out swinging. They're in here, oh man, he has broken the Sabbath. He's even watching as his disciples break the Sabbath. They're reaping.

So, what they say is Sabbath snacking is against the rules we invented. That's the deal. They saw this, so they said to Him, to Jesus that is, Look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. Of course, that's our rules anyway, right? All the extra rules that we have to make sure that you don't break the Sabbath.

So that's their accusation. Look, there's your disciples. You're letting them have a Jewish snack. This one incident was actually part of just a steady stream of verbal opposition, false accusations, and Jewish arguments thrown at Jesus. Let's see how they do. We'll eventually see that the Jewish leaders are not satisfied with just words, and all these arguments are not enough.

They have to take it further. Now, Jesus' response, and you have a listing there, it's on page 3. Jesus' response is the first of four times in Matthew, and the first two of them are in this passage, that Jesus says, have you not read? Now, what does that question imply? Have you not read? Which almost asks, do you guys read? You guys, haven't you read this? And so he goes through two accounts.

So Matthew 12.3 and 12.5, we'll look at that shortly here. The other ones we're going to find, Matthew 19 and 22, those two, I've gone ahead and listed those, those actually are right in the week before the crucifixion, or about that time. So it's interesting, some time will pass before we'll see this quoted again.

So have you not read what David did? Of course, David is one of the most prominent personalities in the Old Testament. Pharisees, do you remember David? Have you not read? He reminded the Pharisees that when David and his men became hungry, they came in and ate bread in the temple, which at that time was the tabernacle at Nob, at a time when Israel's leaders were rejecting David. You see the implication there?

You remember, remember David, when the leaders were rejecting David, what did he do? Remember, when leaders like you were rejecting David, I'm descended from him, right? David went into the temple and ate the bread. Jesus, the blood descendant of King David, that's outlined in the book of Matthew, the very first chapter.

He was there with his men and they were hungry. Get the parallel? So did that not also take priority? The fact that here's hunger and here's an allowance. They can go into the field. And were not Israel's leaders also now rejecting Christ, the son of David? Yes, they were.

The parallels are unmistakable. As a matter of fact, I think that has something to do with why Matthew doesn't record an answer from the Pharisees. But Jesus doesn't stop there. The priests in the temple, this is in verse 5, in the temple work on every day of the week, including the Sabbath. Do they not? The law allows them to do that. It excuses them. It says they're innocent of that.

Their work is often harder than picking heads of grain. They move around animals. Let's move this ox over here, right? So this is a little bit more work than picking heads of grain. They also move wood. You see, one of the things, you see that, here's the altar, here are the priests working at the altar. See the fire that's on there? The Jews were not allowed any day, any time, any part of the year, not once, were they allowed to let the fire go out. in the temple. And that means they're hauling wood on the Sabbath. Right? When the priests do work on the Sabbath, the law does not even remotely say that they're guilty of breaking the Sabbath. Matter of fact, they're required to do multiple things that are a lot harder work than picking heads of grain.

Then Jesus says in verse 6 something profound, something greater than the temple is here. If the temple service and the temple bread have exceptions to the Sabbath, doesn't Jesus, the one who is David's descendant, often called son of David, who will be our heavenly high priest, doesn't he have an exception too? Is not someone greater than even David who had an exception, greater than these priests? Who have an exception? Is not someone greater than that here?

The issue isn't really the Sabbath, is it guys? It's that you guys don't get who I am. In fact, you could put it this way. Jesus said, you don't know who you're messing with. Right? He could have said it that way. Didn't. But he said the equivalent. Someone greater than the temple is here. The real issue isn't about the details and the arguments about the law of Moses. In fact, the Jews thought arguing was just sort of sport. The real issue is about who Christ is. That's the issue. That's always the issue. And here's something else. Christ is the I Am who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. And assigned to Moses, get those people out of Egypt and give them the law.

Jesus is greater than, and he is the priest, prophet, and king. In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus tells them he is greater than three times. We're going to see the rest of those next week. Three times he says he's greater than. So Matthew 12, 6, 41 and 42. He's greater than the priests, in verse 6 here. In 41, he's greater than Jonah. In 42, he is greater than Solomon. Oh, by the way, he's descended from Solomon. So now, in those same passages, he also compares himself to priests and a prophet, Jonah, and a king, Solomon.

And Christ is all three of those. Priest, prophet, and king. Priests, prophets, and kings were initiated in their ministry by anointing. And Christ, Christos in the Greek means the anointed one. He is anointed, why? Because he is a priest, he is prophet, and he is king. Someone greater than the priests, greater than the prophets, greater than the king is here. Then Jesus quotes to the Pharisees delight, I'm sure.

He quotes Hosea 6.6.

Jesus quotes Hosea 6.6 for the Pharisees.

It's a passage that says that heart matters must come first. He says, I'm not interested in you going through the motions. You go and do your sacrifices and go through all the motions. And he says, I'm not really looking for that. The first priority, first priority is where's your heart? That's what matters. Not checking off the checklist.

Oh, the Pharisees had lots of checklists. You go back to that. Okay, which law are they breaking? We got 39 different rules on the Sabbath and a few more on top of that. And they want to go through the checklist. Ah! We found them breaking Sabbath rule number three. They've got the checklist.

Jesus says, what matters is the heart. God's looking at the heart and that's God's priority. That comes first. As he said this, he says that if they had understood that truth, they wouldn't be condemning these disciples who are innocent. So, by condemning, what that's telling me is that you guys don't understand. You don't get it. That's his point. They didn't have a heart for God, but they did have a heart for a bunch of made-up phony rules. So then he tells them, oh, this is the mind blower.

Matthew 12.8, for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

The term Son of Man comes from Daniel 7.13, refers to Christ the Messiah as he comes again at his second coming. Christ refers to himself, as he does in all four Gospels, as the Son of Man. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they all have Christ as the Son of Man. That's what He calls Himself. He is the Messiah to come and judge Israel and the nations. He then says that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He is the one who gave the Sabbath. He's not subject to it. He's Lord of it. He's Lord of it.

We have a saying, you know, you can't get the... I have to say this right now, because I say it in spoonerism and it won't work. You have to get the cart before the horse. I have a joke I tell about the heart before the course, but it'll confuse people.

Okay. You guys need to get first things first. I am Lord of this Sabbath that you're accusing me of breaking. Do you guys get who I am? Do you guys understand? That's what he's trying to get across to them. The issue is who Christ is. Always. And obviously they're not getting it. This did not work out well for the Pharisees. Okay? All right. Really bad. Really bad. So, now we have the real estate part. Location, location, location. For sale by owner. Here we go.

At this point, Jesus and his disciples and the next encounter with the Pharisees shifts to another location, which is a synagogue. We aren't told exactly which one, but a synagogue. There were several of them around the Sea of Galilee there. There's a man there in the synagogue who has a withered hand.

The Pharisees see that Jesus is about to heal him, and imagine the Pharisees talking to one another, oh, I feel a healing coming on, right? So here are the Pharisees, they're looking, oh boy, look, here's a guy with a withered hand, you know what Jesus is going to do? He's going to heal him.

That's bad, right? So the Pharisees immediately question Jesus about whether it's lawful by the traditions to heal anyone on the Sabbath. So that isn't lawful. And so they're starting again. The Pharisees come out swinging again. They're coming at Jesus with this question. They figure, oh boy, we're going to take him on. We're going to come up with a one-two and a left hook, and that will take him out. Right? Alright.

Jesus tells them that if any one of them had a sheep fall into a pit, the man would pull the sheep out of the pit on the Sabbath. Is falling into a pit life-threatening? over time maybe, but not immediately so. In fact, I've pulled a sheep out of a pit. But, you know, typically it's not life-threatening by itself, at least not immediately so that you would have to pull them out on the Sabbath. He says, certainly you would do that, right? Jesus tells him that a man is much more valuable than the sheep. And this man's withered hand, it's not life-threatening either. Remember what we said there?

Back on the earlier long chart on the sideways language, they were permitted to save a Jewish life, but this isn't life-threatening. And neither is the sheep's situation in the pit. And it's not a man. I don't know, maybe it's a Jewish sheep. I have to ask him. Okay. So he says, yeah, it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath, and that's exactly what he does.

The Pharisees' reaction? They begin to plot how to destroy them, but they didn't have an answer. And at the moment, they couldn't quite do anything. This is the third time that Jesus said in Matthew that a man was more valuable than an animal. Matthew 6, look at the birds of the air that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? Now, does this passage say that animals aren't worth anything? No. The Heavenly Father feeds them, doesn't he? It's simply a matter of relative value.

The next one, Matthew 10.31. So do not fear, you are more valuable than many sparrows, or the passage here today. How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep? It's a matter of relative value, and by that comparison, he says, most certainly if you guys will pull a sheep out of a pit, and that's not life-threatening, this man doesn't have anything life-threatening, but won't it do him some good to heal him?

And it's not work, regardless of what you guys think. It's doing good on the Sabbath. Yes, we can do this. And so he does, and the Pharisees, they lost again. They're very upset. They're very upset. Now, location, location, location again. Since the reaction of the Pharisees is profoundly negative, in fact, they're plotting to do them in. This is where the plotting begins. Our arguments obviously aren't getting his attention, and we're not winning those anyway, so let's just do them in. That's the way to end all these arguments that we can't win.

So he goes away from the synagogue and goes ahead and heals on the Sabbath anyway. He says he healed them all. So he can do that. It is a validation that he is the Messiah. He is the Messiah, the Son of Man who is Lord of the Sabbath. Yes, I can heal on the Sabbath and I will. He tells people, and this is interesting because it says it again and again, he tells the people that he heals that They are not to go about telling others about the healing.

Now, can you imagine that? Oh, I noticed that you're not walking around with your foot dragging behind you and your right arm drooping. Oh yeah, it just happened. How did it happen? I can't tell you. Guess what? They're likely to say anyway. Why would Jesus do that? Jesus did not need publicity. This wasn't a PR campaign. It wasn't marketing. He wasn't looking for fame and notoriety. He was looking for people to believe.

Do you believe who I am? That's the question. Do you believe who I am? Now, the last part of the passage there, this was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet. And this is Isaiah 42, 1 through 4, in the Greek Old Testament. And that's Old Testament, not overtime. OK? You're sports nuts here. OK? So it's a Greek Old Testament. OK.

It says, behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him. One of the things in the Trinity, the teaching of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all three persons of the Trinity, three persons, one essence, are in that verse. Behold My Spirit whom I have chosen, the Father is chosen, My servant is Jesus, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased, I will put My Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all three in that verse. And He, the Son, The Father's servant will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

He will not quarrel, nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets or battered reed. He will not break off in a smoldering wick. He will not put out until he leads justice to victory. And in his name, the Gentiles will hope. One of the things we'd like to point out, some of this passage was fulfilled then, and some will be fulfilled at the second coming of Christ. You may be wondering, in verse 19, He will not quarrel, nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out.

He's talking about gentleness. He does things quietly. He doesn't say, okay, now, now that I've healed you, go out and tell everybody you can. He does things quietly. He does things gently. Now, later on, when he comes again, he will not do things gently. Justice will be swift and certain. But at his first coming, while he could have had those Pharisees vaporized, what does he do? He goes and heals outside the synagogue.

And these verses 19 and 20 are expressions of his gentleness and his mercy and his grace. Those things we have underlined there and bolded are about his second coming. Because notice it talks there twice about the Gentiles, and he specifically didn't go to the Gentiles in his first coming. He even told them when he sent the disciples out two by two, Matthew chapter 10, don't go to the Gentiles, don't even go on a road that leads to the Gentiles, go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So those will be fulfilled in his second coming, where he goes to the Gentiles. Who Jesus is, is always, always the issue. It was important for the Israelites to recognize who Jesus was, and frankly not many did, as important as it was.

To believe in Him, so it's critical for people to recognize who Jesus is today, their only Savior. The Bible says the gospel is this, if you believe that Christ the Son of God was crucified, buried, and raised, He was crucified for your sins, buried, and raised, you'll be saved. Salvation is as simple as that. That's the gospel. That's what people need to believe. It's not complicated. It is quite simple. The most profound piece of news that people will ever get on this planet.

We who have once believed those truths, that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again, are invited to behold Him, continue looking to Him. Even today, not just a brief glance, but a steady occupation with Him. There's an eternity's worth of beholding.

Do you think when we get to heaven that we're going to be up there saying, you know, hey, this worshiping Jesus stuff is cool, but my rear is getting kind of tired and I need a coffee break. I need to go out and stretch a while. No, we will be occupied with Him. We won't have the crick in our back and we won't have the sore knees and, you know, things like that. We will be occupied with Him.

He invites us to begin that beholding now. You have as a slide on your handout, and I'll read it here. This is expanded and explained of 2 Corinthians 3.18. It's recognizing who He is every moment.

But all of us who are in Christ, that's the baptized into Christ, with a face that is not veiled by the law, having died in relationship to the law, and living by God's amazing grace, are right now continuing to behold as we read and hear the written word of God, seeing as one who looks into a mirror the glory, the radiant essence of who Christ is. The glory that comes from Christ himself and we are in fact in the very process of being changed and transformed into that same spiritual character growing from one level of Christ's glory to the next. And every part of this beholding and transformation is from the God-given ministries of the Holy Spirit.

The Pharisees sought Jesus and they really didn't get it. And it wasn't just really all about arguing over details on the Sabbath. That's what they thought. It was seeing who Christ is. And we are, in fact, even though we're believers here gathered this morning, I hope you are, even though we're believers here gathered this morning, the ongoing invitation is for us to continue to behold Him and to recognize moment by moment who He is and that we are in Him. and that he is in us. Let's pray. Lord we thank you for as we look at this passage we we can see what the Pharisees did not see and we can understand what they did not understand and beyond that we can believe what they didn't believe and we ask that our hearts would be drawn to recognize you for who you in fact are forever and who we are in you, and who you are in us. We thank you for this marvelous, tremendous, eternal truth. In Jesus' name, Amen.