This document discusses Jesus confronting religious leaders who accuse Him of breaking the Sabbath. When they question Him for allowing His disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath, Jesus responds by citing the example of David eating consecrated bread when he was hungry. He asserts that He is Lord of the Sabbath. On another Sabbath, the religious leaders watch as Jesus heals a man with a withered hand, angering them further as they seek ways to oppose Him. The document encourages standing up for biblical truth in love without backing down or giving up on people.

2. When confronted with a question that showed
people were following a false premise, Jesus
uses the Word in an attempt to correct the false
teaching, therefore, correcting the false
premise.
We live in a society that is becoming
increasingly intolerant of Christianity. Now, with
that said, I do not want to come unhinged and
make it sound like 2020 in the United States is
the worst time in history to be a Christian.

3. All I am saying is that for a society that claims
to pride itself on being tolerant, that tolerance
appears to be a one-way street in the eyes of
many.
Because of this, it is tempting to disengage
from society or to back off and apologize for
what we believe in.
It is getting more and more tempting just to
stand down.

4. With the intolerance, tolerance we seem to be
experiencing today, for Christians, it is tempting
to either avoid answering questions or water
down our answers so much that the answers do
not resemble anything close to the truth.
As we look at , we are going to
follow Jesus on a couple of Sabbath days.
On these days, Jesus is going to be confronted
with a question from some religious leaders.

5. One of the most challenging things for us to do
is to deal with a falsely held belief that someone
has.
When the falsehood is so ingrained in a person,
when we try to give a loving, logical, truthful
answer, people can have a tendency to resist
listening to the truth.

6. For instance, the phantom Separation of Church
and State law that we have been TOLD is in The
Constitution, yet in reality is nowhere to be
found.
I can challenge folks not to take my word for it,
but to look for themselves.
Many people will not take the time to look
because of laziness or a refusal to look at
anything that might contradict what they
believe.

7. The phrase "separation between church &
state" is generally traced to a January 1, 1802,
letter by Thomas Jefferson, addressed to the
Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut,
and published in a Massachusetts newspaper.
Jefferson wrote,
Believing with you that religion is a matter
which lies solely between Man & his God, that
he owes account to none other for his faith or
his worship, that the legitimate powers of
government reach actions only,

8. & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign
reverence that act of the whole American people
which declared that their legislature should "make
no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building
a wall of separation between Church & State.
Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of
the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I
shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of
those sentiments which tend to restore to man all
his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right
in opposition to his social duties."

9. Was Jefferson merely assuring the Danbury
Baptists that the government would never
interfere with matters of the church or was he
severing all connection between government
and religious practice? It’s revealing to note that
two days after sending his reply to the Danbury
Baptists, Jefferson attended a Sunday worship
service held in the House of Representatives
and continued to attend these services
throughout his two terms in office.

10. He also granted permission to various church
denominations to worship in executive office
buildings and conveyed in his First Inaugural
Address the position that religion was necessary
for the welfare of a government by the people and
for the people.
Article Six of the United States Constitution also
specifies that "no religious Test shall ever be
required as a Qualification to any Office or public
Trust under the United States."

11. Another issue is the thought that all paths or
religions lead to the same God.
Sadly, they do not.
NIV Salvation is found in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven given to
mankind by which we must be saved.”
We deal with rejection when we try to share the
truth with people today, but that has always been
the case.
Today we will find Jesus in a situation where He
will be confronted by a question from the religious
leaders.

12. Jesus is going to use the Word to combat some
false thinking, teaching, as well as some
intellectual contradictions that the Pharisee’s
held.
I want us to see how He deals with the situation.
My aim today is to help us to see how we can
Dive Deeper into the Word with Jesus to combat
false teaching, thinking, and attitudes.

13. NIV One Sabbath Jesus was going
through the grainfields, and his disciples began
to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their
hands and eat the kernels. Some of the
Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is
unlawful on the Sabbath?"

14. This will be the first of Luke’s four “Sabbath
Controversies," which are stories in which
Jesus is accused of violating the Sabbath Law
by the religious leaders.
The fourth Commandment found in
NIV "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it
holy.
There is not a lot said,
what does it mean to keep it holy?

15. The word "Sabbath" comes from the Hebrew
Shabbat, meaning "to cease" or "desist." The
primary meaning is that of cessation from all
work.
So, what constitutes work, cooking a meal?
Feeding the animals?

16. The Pharisees, beginning many decades before
the birth of Jesus, were continually debating
what was work and what was not.
Their motives were mostly good—they wanted
to keep the Law of God.
The desire to keep the Law of God is not
legalism, even if one wants to be concerned
with the lesser matters.

17. For the most part, the Pharisees wanted to do
the right thing.
By the time Jesus came on the scene, the
Pharisees had settled on some 39 different
types of work, and within these 39 classes, they
had generally agreed on what constituted work

18. We are going to have a showdown between
Jesus and some Pharisees.
They are coming after Him because He is doing
something the Pharisees had agreed was a
violation of the Law.
So, they ask, why are you doing what is not
lawful?
This question goes to the heart of what we deal
with yet today, false teachings and
misconceptions about what constitutes truth.

19. We know what Jesus is doing is not sin, yet the
Pharisees take issue with Him and believe that
He is committing a sin.
Christianity is filled with things like this.
Where in the Bible does it say you cannot play
cards, dance, watch TV, or even have a glass of
wine on occasion. (NOT EVERY OCCASION!)
Where does it say what brand of car we are to
drive, or what type of house to purchase?

20. Now, when it comes to some of those things, we
are not to get drunk, we should not dance in a
vulgar way, there are some things on TV we
should consider staying away from, and we
probably should not gamble away what we own.
In other words, there are principles and
boundaries to follow.

21. When we tell people they cannot do certain
things, most of the time we are doing what the
Pharisees were trying to do.
You cannot dance in a vulgar way if you do not
dance, can't get drunk if you do not drink, etc.…
The Pharisees were trying to combat the
problem of keeping the Sabbath holy by going
nuclear.
Now Jesus is caught in the crossfire, what does
He do? What should we do?

22. NIV Jesus answered them,
Then Jesus said to them,

23. Here are some thoughts concerning this
exchange.
Jesus could have handled this question in a
multitude of ways.
Jesus always knew thoughts, and heart of those
He dealt with.
He knew the Pharisees were up to no good.
He could have just walked on by and ignored
them.

24. He could have apologized for hurting their
feelings and promised never to do it again.
Jesus could have backed down from the truth
and allowed the Pharisees to continue to believe
their wrongly held convictions.
That is not how Jesus chose to deal with this
situation, and that is not the way we are to deal
with questions from a hostile society.

25. Jesus is going to rock their world a bit with His
answer to them.
These religious leaders had a deep-seated
conviction that they were correct in their
assessment of the situation.
Just because someone has a deeply held
conviction, it does not mean the conviction is
right.

26. Jesus takes these authorities on the Scriptures,
to the Scriptures in an attempt to correct their
wrongly held conviction.
The story is recorded in .
David was a fugitive from King Saul.
In hunger and desperation, David entered the
House of God.

27. NIV David went to Nob, to
Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he
met him, and asked, "Why are you alone? Why
is no one with you?" David answered
Ahimelek the priest, "The king sent me on a
mission and said to me, 'No one is to know
anything about the mission I am sending you
on.' As for my men, I have told them to meet me
at a certain place.

28. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give
me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can
find." But the priest answered David, "I don't
have any ordinary bread on hand; however,
there is some consecrated bread here—
provided the men have kept themselves from
women."

29. David replied, "Indeed women have been kept
from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men's
bodies are holy even on missions that are not
holy. How much more so today!" So the priest
gave him the consecrated bread, since there
was no bread there except the bread of the
Presence that had been removed from before
the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day
it was taken away.

30. Each week twelve consecrated loaves of bread,
representing the twelve tribes of Israel, would
be placed on a table in the house of God, the
tabernacle.
This bread was called the bread of the Presence
(or showbread).
At the end of the week, the bread would be
replaced with fresh loaves, and the old loaves
would be eaten by the priests.

31. NIV This bread is to be set out
before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after
Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting
covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons,
who are to eat it in the sanctuary area, because
it is a most holy part of their perpetual share of
the food offerings presented to the LORD."

32. The high priest gave this consecrated bread to
David and his men to eat as they were fleeing
from Saul.
The priest understood that their need was more
important than ceremonial regulations.
The loaves given to David were the old loaves
that had just been replaced with fresh ones.

33. Although the priests were the only ones allowed
to eat this bread, God did not punish David
because his need for food was more important
than the priestly regulations.
Jesus is saying that if you condemn me,
you have to condemn David also!

34. Jesus was not condoning disobedience to
God’s laws.
Instead, he was emphasizing discernment and
compassion in enforcing the ceremonial laws,
something the self-righteous Pharisees did not
comprehend.
People’s needs are more important than
technicalities.

35. Then Jesus caps it off by proclaiming that He is
Lord of the Sabbath!
Jesus had the authority to overrule the
Pharisees’ traditions and regulations because
He created the Sabbath!

36. Someone has defined tradition as “the living
faith of those now dead,” whereas traditionalism
is “the dead faith of those now living.”
Jesus’ critics in were locked into
traditionalism.

37. NIV Then Jesus said to them,
These folks had transitioned from honoring God
with the Sabbath to meticulous rule keeping.

38. In verses we are told on another Sabbath,
the religious leaders are on the prowl, I will
assume this not too long after verses took
place.
Jesus enters the Synagogue, and there is a man
with a withered hand.

39. The scribes and Pharisees are watching Jesus
closely.
I am sure they are mad at Him for the answer He
gave concerning the Sabbath of short time
earlier.
Look at verses with me.

40. NIV The Pharisees and the teachers of
the law were looking for a reason to accuse
Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he
would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew
what they were thinking and said to the man
with the shriveled hand,
So he got up and stood
there.

41. There will be times that the response we receive
for sharing truth will not be well-received.
I find it interesting that Luke told us that Jesus
KNEW their thoughts.
These folks did not want the truth, they wanted
to do harm to Jesus.

42. NIV Then Jesus said to them,
He
looked around at them all, and then said to the
man, He did so, and his
hand was completely restored.

43. I bet you could cut the tension with a knife.
As Jesus looked around at those in the crowd, I
wonder what they were thinking.
The question Jesus asked is a double-edged
question.
These men did not care that the man needed
healing, all they wanted was to get rid of Jesus
because the truth He represented was going to
destroy their fantasy world in which these
people lived.

44. When the truth of God’s Word collides with the
fantasy life people tend to live, hostility can
follow.
When Jesus spoke of saving a life, He was
referring to the lame man, when He spoke of
destroying a life, He was referring to their desire
to destroy His.

45. In a sense He was saying,
HOW CAN YOU RELIGIOUS PEOPLE BE
THINKING WHAT YOU ARE THINKING.
You are so worried about YOUR rules that you
forget the HEART and you forget what is
IMPORTANT to God, PEOPLE ARE IMPORTANT!

46. Jesus healed the man, now verse tells us
instead of being joyful over the healing of the
man, the leaders were filled with RAGE and
started plotting how to get rid of Jesus.
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law
were furious and began to discuss with one
another what they might do to Jesus.
In the parallel accounts in and
, it tells us they were seeking ways to
kill Jesus.
WOW!

47. When the Pharisees asked Jesus why He was
breaking the Law, He gave them a Biblical
response because their assumption was built
upon a false premise.
We will face this type of thing frequently, and we
will need to be able to offer a loving, biblical
response to people.

48. Folks will not always like hearing Biblical truth,
but we cannot back down, nor can we be hateful
or give up on people.
We cannot allow ourselves to be bullied into
silence, the stakes are too high, we are trying to
win the hearts and minds of people to Jesus!