October 8, 2000 Humble Messenger
Humble Messenger
Volume 8, Week 41 October 8, 2000
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JESUS, THE PHARISEES, AND THE SABBATH
- Clarence Johnson
In Matt. 12:1-2, Matthew tells us that Jesus went through
the grain fields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads
of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, Look, Your disciples
are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.
First, let it be noted that Jesus did not violate Gods Sabbath law nor encourage His
followers to do so. Jesus never sinned, Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22. Gods law did indeed forbid
all normal work on the Sabbath, Ex. 20:10. But God apparently intended to leave it up to
each individual Israelite to use common sense in applying that law. Certain necessary
activities were not disallowed. Even the Pharisees minute man-made restrictions allowed
for circumcision of eight-day-old boy on the Sabbath, and allowed a person to do what was
necessary to care for farm animals on that day, John 7:22; Luke 13:15.
Now, let us look briefly at Jesus answer to the Pharisees accusation in Matthew 12. In
verses 3-4, Jesus points to the inconsistency of the Pharisees. They tended to defend
Davids actions in 1 Sam. 21, which were a technical violation of the Law, while they
charged Jesus disciples with sin when they had not violated Gods Law. The disciples were
not harvesting a crop, but simply relieving their hunger. This was no more than the
Pharisees themselves would have done for their own farm animals.
In verse 5, Jesus pointed out that it was the duty of the priests to work twice as hard on
the Sabbath as on other days. See Num. 28:9-10. If Jesus disciples violated the Sabbath by
pulling and eating grain, surely the priests must be guilty of profaning the Sabbath by
offering sacrifice. (Note, Jesus was NOT accusing the priests of sin, but was simply
showing the inconsistency of the rules the Pharisees were trying to enforce upon all the
Jews.)
In verses 6-7, Jesus shows that God intended the Sabbath to be a blessing to His people,
not a burden. See also Mark 2:27. Then in verse 8, Jesus claimed to be Lord of the
Sabbath. By this claim, Jesus was showing that He Himself was in a better position to know
and determine what was lawful or unlawful on that day, than were the Pharisees who were
accusing Him.
Finally, let us note that these questions regarding the observance of the Jewish Sabbath,
which was on Saturday, ended after Jesus death on the cross. Beginning with the
establishment of the New Testament church in the book of Acts, Jesus followers met
regularly on the first day of the week (Sunday) instead of on the Jewish Sabbath
(Saturday). The apostle Paul admonishes us to let no one judge us with regard to the
keeping of the Sabbath and other observances of the Old Testament Law, Col. 2:12-14.
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"THEY COULD NOT CURE HIM" - Clarence Johnson
When Jesus and His disciples "had come to the
multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 'Lord, have mercy on my
son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and
often into the water, so I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.'
Then Jesus answered and said, '0 faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be
with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.' And Jesus rebuked the
demon, and he came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the
disciples came to Jesus privately and said, 'Why could we not cast him out?' So Jesus said
to them, 'Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a
mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it
will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out
except by prayer and fasting."' (Matthew 17:14-21).
This is the only recorded case of Jesus' apostles failing in an attempt to work a miracle.
This incident is also recorded in Mark 9:14-29, where we learn that the demon which
possessed this boy not only cause epileptic seizures, but also caused the boy to be deaf
and mute. Jesus, of course, had absolutely no trouble at all healing the boy and casting
out the demon. But the apostles had not been able to do so.
Many today claim to have the same healing powers given by God to the apostles, but they
experience a multitude of failures. When asked for a reason why their attempts are often
unsuccessful, the answer is inevitably that there was a shortage of faith on the part of
the person to be healed. Note that in the Bible there was only one failure, and Jesus
plainly said it was caused by a shortage of faith -- on the part of the would-be healers.
Though faith was sometimes required on the part of the person to be healed, it was not
always so. Jesus and the apostles were not limited in their healing abilities by someone
else's lack of faith. The only failure to heal came when the apostles' faith fell short.
In the days before the New Testament had been put into written form, miracles were the
credentials of the inspired speakers. When they taught what had been revealed in Old
Testament times, they simply affirmed, "It is written." When they revealed new
truth not yet written into the Scriptures, the miracles served as the proof that their
message was from God, Mark 16:20.
Those apostles could have moved mountains with a word. Such abilities became known as
"the signs of an apostle" (2 Corinthians 12:12). After Jesus ascended to heaven,
no man had such abilities except His apostles and those to whom the apostles had imparted
spiritual gifts by laying on of apostolic hands, Acts 8:18.
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NEWS
Gospel Meeting, Oct. 8-11, Liberty, James Wilson,
"Why I Believe in God and Creation" . . . Thanks to all who did the teaching and
preaching in my absence . . . Sandra Bernard will be teaching the Wednesday morning
class this week . . . Our next scheduled gospel meeting is Nov. 10-12, 2000,
Friday-Sunday, with Wayne Chamberlain doing the preaching . . . Jan. 19-21, 2001,
Friday-Sunday, we have a gospel meeting scheduled with Mark Roberts doing the
preaching . . . What is "withdrawing" or "church discipline" as it is
sometimes called? Who is to be withdrawn from? Is it something to be done by individuals
or something done in the assembly? Why is it to be done? These questions will be dealt
with in an upcoming lesson, the Lord willing. Reading the following passages may help in
preparing for the study: Mt. 18:15-18; Rom. 16:17-18; 1 Cor. 5; 2 Th. 3:6-15; 2 Tim.
3:1-5; Tit. 3:10-11.
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Newspaper Articles
We continue to receive email indicating our articles
in the newspapers are being read. How many readers can be estimated per response received
I do not know. The emails demonstrate the need for understanding of the very things we
have studied here time and again. For example, here are excerpts from one recently
received: "I have read the ads and the letters in the local Humble paper over the
last few weeks, and feel I must respond. I have no intentions of getting in a religious
debate, because all the top scholars in the world cannot agree therefore I cannot convince
you nor you me. I am a Christian with a Baptist background although I would not
necessarily claim to be baptist . . . You pull certain scriptures as opposed to the entire
Bible and claim that water baptism is needed, though you can fall from grace and become
resaved without rebaptism. You claim you cannot receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit
claiming this scripture to be very specific to a certain group at a certain time, ignoring
the other times it appears and what the Bible says. You also probably do not accept
predestination, I say this only due to your other beliefs, yet the Bible teaches it again
and again." Some issues raised in this email: the value of discussing
("debating") our differences; essentiality of baptism for forgiveness;
possibility of falling from grace; baptism of the Holy Spirit; predestination. How would
you respond?
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Transportation for Zelma Bobbitt
OCTOBER
Sun. 8 pm Doug Bernard
Wed. 11 pm
Sun. 15 pm
Wed. 18 pm Johnathan Bernard
Sun. 22 pm
Wed. 25 pm
Sun. 29 pm
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Wednesday Evening Close
Oct 11 Mark Ary
Oct 18 Jim Crain
Oct 25 David Dickey
Nov 1 Kris Emerson