SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/16/2022 8:01
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The Sabbath Does not Restrict Acts of Mercy”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
12:7-8
Message of the verses: “7 “But if you had
known what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would
not have condemned the innocent. 8 “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’”
The Sabbath day was very special to the Jewish
people and because of that they should be concerned to follow the Lord’s
example of compassion on that very special day.
The problem was, of course, the Pharisees, which caused many of the Jews
to be far from God because of the restrictions that they put onto the Sabbath. MacArthur adds “God’s purpose for the Sabbath further
indicated the Pharisees’ unbelief and hardness of heart. They were the true violators of the Sabbath,
because they ‘invalidated the word of God for the sake of [their] tradition’
(Matt. 15:6). Those who condemned the
innocent stood condemned themselves.
They did not refuse to do acts of mercy because of devotion to God’s law
but because of lack of compassion.”
In
order to Substitute His authority for saying what He had just said, Jesus then
added, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Because of this statement the Pharisees
probably lost their speech, as what He had implied by “something greater than
the temple” (12:6), He now made unambiguous.
Jesus stood before them and He claimed that He was greater than God’s
temple and greater than God’s Sabbath.
This could only mean that He was God, the “Son of Man,” which is the
divine Messiah whom the temple honored and the Sabbath served.
MacArthur
concludes “Because the Lord of the Sabbath had come, the shadow of His Sabbath
rest was no longer needed or valid. The
New Testament does not require Sabbath observance but rather allows freedom as
to whether or not any day is honored above others. The only requirement is that, whatever position
is taken, it is taken for the p;urpose of glorifying the Lord (Rom. 14:5-6);
and no believer has the right to impose his views in this regard on anyone else
(Gal. 4:9-10; Col 2:16).
“From
the days of the early church (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), Christians have set
aside Sunday, the first day of the week, as a special day of worship,
fellowship, and giving offerings, because that is the day our Lord was raised
from the dead. But the Lord’s Day is not
the ‘Christian Sabbath,’ as it was considered to be for many centuries and
still is in some groups today.”
1/16/2022 8:22 AM
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