Jan. 17, 2023 - Just Informed Talk - Craig James
11:51
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| Hi and welcome back. | |
| We have another God's Graces Greater segment and today we're doing Luke chapter 6. | |
| We're starting a new chapter in the Gospel of Luke and there is a powerful story that we're going to be covering here where it talks about Jesus healing a man with a paralyzed hand and what this has to do with Jesus being the Lord of the Sabbath and And how it's all connected is a fascinating story that talks about Jesus' power, but talks about the doubt that he was facing at that time. | |
| And I just want to share this incredible story with you. | |
| We're picking up where we left off. | |
| Now, it always is good to have context to where we left off. | |
| We left off in Luke chapter 5, and the last part we covered there was about fasting. | |
| And we talked about fasting. | |
| How Jesus was being questioned by the scribes and the Pharisees about, you know, dining with tax collectors and sinners. | |
| And he said, the sick, the healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick do. | |
| And then he was questioned about, you know, why John the Baptist's disciples were fasting and following all the rules of the Pharisees. | |
| But as we know, John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus, and Jesus explains to them that you can't make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? | |
| And we're picking up there, from there, where Jesus is now passing through grain fields on the Sabbath. | |
| And that's where we're picking up. | |
| And he's confronted again by the Pharisees. | |
| Let's see what happens in this exchange. | |
| It says, and this is chapter 6, verse 1 through 11. | |
| On a Sabbath, he passed through the grain fields. | |
| His disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. | |
| But some of the Pharisees said, Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? | |
| Jesus answered them, Haven't you read what David and those who were with him did when he was hungry? | |
| How he entered the house of God and took and ate the sacred bread, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat? | |
| He even gave some to those who were with him. | |
| Then he told them, The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. | |
| It goes on. | |
| He says, So he got up and stood there. | |
| Then Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do what is good or to do what is evil, to save a life or to destroy it? | |
| After looking around at them all, he told him, stretch out your hand. | |
| He did so, and his hand was restored. | |
| They, however, were filled with rage and started discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus. | |
| I really do love this scripture because it tells you so much about what's happening here. | |
| And it gives us so much context for what we need in this world to understand it even better. | |
| Now, what is the context here? | |
| Well, let's get the context of the whole scripture out first. | |
| Jesus, again, is walking through a grain field on the Sabbath, and he's confronted by a group of Pharisees who came to him and challenged him allowing his disciples to pick the heads off of grains and he's confronted by a group of Pharisees who came to him and challenged him allowing his disciples to pick the heads off of grains or | |
| Now, what you have to remember is that they considered this threshing, which was against the commandments made by the Pharisees, right? | |
| You weren't allowed to basically work on the Sabbath, and they had all these long lists of rules of what you could and what you couldn't do on the Sabbath, how you were clean and how you were unclean on the Sabbath if you did this or that or the other thing. | |
| And all of these things went so far beyond the commands of God that it had come into the realm of absurdity. | |
| And Jesus came to break through that and remind us of our connection to God and God's commands alone. | |
| Not what is created by man here on this earth, but what is created by God and then through God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. | |
| So, what happens here? | |
| Well, Jesus challenges them by reminding them of David. | |
| Who, when he was hungry, he entered the house of God and took this bread that was only meant to be consumed by the high priest, right? | |
| And not only did he take it and consume it, but he took it and he shared it with those who were with him. | |
| And then he tells them this, referencing Daniel chapter 7 verse 13, he says, The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. | |
| So he basically tells them in no uncertain terms as they challenge him, I am... | |
| He says He is the Messiah, essentially. | |
| And that He is the Lord of the Sabbath. | |
| That He is in control of what you can and can't do. | |
| Because in the very next example, we see why He says that to these people in particular. | |
| The Pharisees and the scribes who continuously challenge Him. | |
| He goes, and there's another Sabbath, right? | |
| And he's in a synagogue and he's teaching. | |
| And there was a man there who had a paralyzed hand. | |
| Obviously, he was hurt. | |
| And again, the scribes and the Pharisees are there watching him very closely because they want to get something they can charge him with. | |
| Because all he's doing is undermining their authority and their power by going by God's commands and not theirs, of course. | |
| But he knew what they were thinking. | |
| Jesus knew what they were thinking. | |
| So he tells the man to stand up, and he asks, he says, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do what is good or to do what is evil, to save a life or destroy it? | |
| So he's challenging them in the synagogue to their face. | |
| These Pharisees and scribes sitting there, they are infuriated by this because Jesus is challenging their authority that they've built on this earth to control others. | |
| In their opinion, on behalf of God. | |
| But what Jesus is pointing out is you don't care about the well-being of others. | |
| You only care about yourself, which is why you've created these rules to control others. | |
| You're not doing it... | |
| If I can heal someone, essentially, is what Jesus is saying. | |
| If I can do what is good, why shouldn't I? Because he's the Lord of the Sabbath, remember? | |
| He told us it is up to him to decide what is good and what is not. | |
| So he's saying... | |
| Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do what is good? | |
| He's basically, in my opinion, making a mockery of them, saying, you've made rules to say you cannot do good things for others because of a day that we were told to rest. | |
| By God, it wasn't told to us to do nothing to help others, and Jesus again is coming to break through these systems that have been created to control and oppress others by the authority of these Pharisees and scribes who created their whole power structure out of thin air, practically. | |
| They based it loosely on the teachings of God, and then they went a mile or two miles or a hundred miles beyond that. | |
| And Jesus is coming to break through that. | |
| That's what he does here in this very exact moment where he, in front of them in a synagogue on the Sabbath, heals this man's hand and basically challenges, this is what is good. | |
| Doing what is good is not a wrong thing. | |
| And if you think it is, then you're wrong, is what he's essentially challenging the Pharisees and the scribes with. | |
| So he restores the hand. | |
| But again, answering the question he previously asked, we see what happens to the scribes and the Pharisees. | |
| It says they were filled with rage and started discussing what they might do to Jesus. | |
| Now, can you imagine living in a world where you're helping someone else, And when you help them, it fills others with contempt and rage towards you. | |
| That's what Jesus is facing here. | |
| But thanks be to God that he came to break through that so that we could know the truth about what it meant to be Christians and to honor and worship God. | |
| It meant to do good unto others. | |
| Jesus gives us the two greatest commands. | |
| What does he say? | |
| Love no one above God and love each other in the same way. | |
| Love one another. | |
| Not in the same way as you love God, but do unto others as you'd want unto yourself. | |
| Love your neighbor. | |
| So, these are the commands we're given in our lives, and I just hope that that speaks to your heart to understand in this way that we're told through this story that Jesus came to break through all the traditions. | |
| So, that's why I personally, I look to the Bible to learn how to understand. | |
| I look to the gospel to understand the world I'm in, right? | |
| Because there's a lot of people who are going to build up these rules and systems outside of God's commands, and they're going to tell us that that's what we have to do. | |
| But there's only one authority, and that is God and His Son, Jesus Christ, is the way we connect to God directly. | |
| So if you want to learn... | |
| What's good and what's bad and what's right and what's wrong? | |
| These are the places you must look and understand. | |
| Not to man. | |
| Not to Trump and the government or the military or Q or whatever. | |
| Don't look at that. | |
| Look to God. | |
| Look to Jesus. | |
| The answers are there. | |
| We've been given the roadmap. | |
| This is it. | |
| So let's say a prayer and then we'll wrap it up. | |
| Lord and Heavenly Father, we give you such thanks for these incredible lessons that we can learn through these stories that account the history of your Son, our Lord's life, Jesus Christ. | |
| We thank you, Lord, that he led by example and taught us that your commands are more holy than those of man and that those who seek to create power out of thin air for their own gain Are bound to fall, Lord, but those who seek you first and put your glory ahead of their own are always going to be bound to be successful, whether it's in this life or the next. | |
| And let those out there watching know that in their heart that when we do the right thing, that we will be rewarded. | |
| And although it may not come in the way that we expect, and although it may not come in the timeline we wish, Lord, help us have trust and faith that it will come according to your will. | |
| We thank you and we pray that your will be done, not ours. | |
| We thank you most of all for our eternal salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. | |
| Amen. | |
| Well, I hope you guys really enjoyed that. | |
| We're going to go ahead and sign off there. | |
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| I will be back same time, same place tomorrow. | |
| Until then, my name is Craig. | |
| Godspeed. |
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