Seek First the Kingdom of God

Mosaic Boston - Sermons

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Heavenly Father, as we come to you on this communion Sunday and we will remember the sufferings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we come to you with hearts full of gratitude. We thank you for the salvation that you offer us. Each one of us has broken your holy law, the 10 Commandments. We have transgressed the commandments, and the penalty for our transgression is banishment from your kingdom for eternity.

Therefore, we're so thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and lived perfectly according to the commandments and taught the people what your word is, what you expect, what the duties and the obligations are. As they recognize that they haven't fulfilled the commandments, they sought grace, they sought forgiveness by repenting of sin. Lord, that's what we do today. We repent of our sin. We repent of our self-righteousness.

If there's anyone here who thinks that they don't need grace, if they are like the Pharisees who consider themselves healthy, why would they need the great physician Jesus Christ, I pray today show them that every single one of us has sin and every single one of us we need grace, and every single one of us is sick in our souls and we need the healing of Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for the gift of a new birth, the gift of a new heart regeneration. When we repent of sin, you give us that new heart.

You write your laws upon our heart, and you imprint them on our minds. And then you give us the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit is placed in that new Holy Spirit. Today, empower us and we pray convict us where we need to be convicted to live a life of faith and obedience to our Lord and Savior. Bless our time, the Holy Scriptures, Lord. We pray all this in Christ's name, amen. We're continuing our sermon series in the Gospel of Mark called Kingdom Come, the Gospel of Mark and the secret of God's kingdom, and the title of the sermon today is Seek First the Kingdom of God.

How often do you think about food? How often do you think about clothing? How often do you think about money, material things? To think about physical things is human. We need food to live. However, you can be full and live life to the full, materially speaking, and still not experience the fullness of life. You can be full, yet empty in your heart. Jesus Christ said that he came to offer us life and life to the full. It's not that Jesus doesn't want you to eat, drink, relax, and enjoy life.

He doesn't want you to live primarily for those things. He doesn't want you to be ruled by your appetites. He doesn't want your stomach to be your God. He doesn't want money to be your God. He doesn't want your appearance to be your God. He doesn't want your job to be your God. None of these things satisfy the soul. Only he does and only he can fill your heart with joy and joy unspeakable. Matthew 6:31, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Therefore do not be anxious saying, 'What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?'.

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you." In our text today, we see Jesus Christ, the king of kings, King Jesus bringing joy into the world. His kingdom is a joyful kingdom. His followers rejoice in his presence. Would you look at the text with me? We're in Mark 2:13-28. He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.

And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. The scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, "Why did John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sows a piece of shrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from old, and a worst tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins." One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

And the Pharisees were saying to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?" And he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

This is the reading of God's holy and unfathomable authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, King Jesus heals sin-sick sinners. Second, King Jesus serves new wine, and third, King Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. First, King Jesus heals sin-sick sinners. As was Jesus' way, as was his mission, he comes teaching and preaching the word of God.

He said earlier that that's why he came to teach people God's word and to teach them that we have broken God's law and to show them that we are under condemnation, that we need grace. He's the only one who can offer that grace as the one who fulfilled the law perfectly and then offers his substitutionary atonement on the cross for us, for our lawbreaking. He's teaching them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. He said to him, "Follow me."

And he rose and followed him. Levi, whose name is changed to Matthew later, he actually wrote the Gospel of Matthew and he does not introduce himself as Levi. He introduces himself as Matthew. That's what he calls himself. The name Matthew means a gift of Yahweh, a gift of God. He wanted everyone to know that when he followed Jesus Christ, Jesus changed him. Jesus changed his heart. Jesus changed his purpose. Jesus changed his whole life, his whole identity. Therefore, Jesus gave him a new name, not Levi, but Matthew, the gift of God.

Well, the gift of God before he met Jesus Christ was not a gift to most people as a tax collector. Anyone named Levi at this time most likely came from the tribe of the Levites and their hereditary job was service in the temple as priests. But the life that Levi chose, it was diametrically opposed to being a priest in the temple. Instead of choosing to serve God, he chose to serve money. Money was his true God. No matter the cost, he followed the money. In passing by him, Jesus fastens his eyes on Levi.

It doesn't say that he saw a tax collector. That's what everyone else saw. A man judges by appearance. Jesus Christ, God judges by the heart. It says he saw Levi, he saw the person, he saw the eternal soul, and he saw what he could do with him if Levi followed. Tax collectors were collectors of indirect taxes, especially in the transport of goods. That's why he's sitting at a toll booth. The Roman Empire was in charge at this time, and what they do is they look at a district and they would assess how much money they could get from that district doing as little work as possible.

They assess how much, and then they would sell a license to collect taxes to whoever the highest bidder was. This was a farming system to the highest bidder. Whoever paid for that license, they gave Romans the money. Romans took that money, and then it was the job of the tax collector to get his money back and more, and overcharging was the usual. The buyer had to hand over the assessed figure at the end of the year and keep any extra for himself. There was ample opportunity for extortion, for exploitation.

Obviously the locals and the people of that region did not like tax collectors. They hated them. These were corrupt lackeys of the hated imperial presence. They were traitors' turncoats. They collaborated with the Romans, the oppressors, and fleecing their own people. Usually to be a tax collector, you were involved in some criminal activity. Most likely you had friends who were thugs and gangsters and enforcers to get your money back. The religious people of the time hated tax collectors, viewed them as unclean, wouldn't even allow them in the synagogue or the temple.

They were excommunicated by default. Jesus comes to this guy Levi that everyone absolutely hates because of his chosen path in life. Jesus looks at him and commands him, "Follow me." He says he rose and followed him. Something happened in his heart where he realized, you know what? I have been transgressing God's law and there is one that has come that said he's the Son of God, that he is the king of kings. I'm going to follow him. He does that. In following Jesus Christ, he had to make a decision that was a little different from the other apostles.

The other disciples, Peter, Andrew, John, and James who were previously called by Jesus, they were fishermen. They could keep their fishing business on the side as they follow Jesus Christ. They even used their boats in the ministry of Jesus. In the next text, they provide a boat pulpit, so to speak. Jesus was on the boat and he was preaching to the people. No, for Levi to follow Jesus Christ, Levi has to leave this job. He has to leave this corrupt path that he had chosen. For Levi, it meant leaving behind his thieving ways.

He's no longer to follow money, but Jesus. In Matthew 6:24, no one can serve two masters, for either he'll hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. When Levi broke the command, thou shall not steal by taking from people more than he should have, the reason why he broke that commandment was because he broke the first commandment, and the first commandment was thou shall not have any gods before me.

Levi, his God was money. Jesus comes displaces money on the throne of Levi's heart and Jesus now is king. Now, where did they go? Jesus says, "Follow me." We saw this with Peter. Jesus told Peter, "Follow me." And then the next text, they end up at Peter's house. Follow me. Where are we going, Jesus? We're going to your house. And all of a sudden, Peter's house became a place of ministry and his roof got disassembled. That was last week. Same thing here with Levi. Levi, you have wealth.

Levi, you have a home. Levi, you have friends from your former life. Now, what are we going to do? We're going to go to your house and you're going to throw a feast, and you're going to invite all of your former colleagues to come and meet me. That's exactly what happened in Mark 2:15. As he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. Is this clear evidence that this was Levi's house?

We get the clarity of the evidence from the parallel passage in Luke 5:27. After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, "Follow me." And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with him. Levi understood that to follow Jesus Christ wasn't just to join a Bible study or to study theology. He understood that to follow Jesus was to enter the work of Christ.

What was the work of Christ? He said, "I've come to fish for men, to save people from the nets of captivity and sin of Satan." That's what Jesus has been doing and this is what he called Peter James and John to do. This is what he called Levi to do. Follow me and I will make you become a fisher of men. This is what Levi is already doing. He's fishing for sinners to free them from the nets of Satan and sin. It's not just random people that he's never met. Who's he invite?

It's people who knew him, who knew him inside and out, who knew his heart, who knew his whole past, his old business acquaintances, and he gets them together for a party. He doesn't know much theology. He just knows that this one Jesus has come. He's claimed to be God. He's claimed that we've transgressed his law, and he's claimed that if we repent, he gives us forgiveness of sins and welcomes us into his kingdom. The lesson here for us is when you come to faith, when you come to faith for the very first time in Jesus Christ, don't just cut off all of your social network.

Don't just cut off all of your former friends. If Jesus has saved you, he saved you for a reason. He saved you to impact people that know you. You share your testimony. You get them together. You throw a party. You have a little feast and you say, "Look, I might not know everything there is to know about Jesus, but I know Jesus. I know that I've broken the commandments, the 10 of them, and Jesus Christ is the only one who offers me forgiveness. What's stopping you from trusting in Jesus Christ now?"

They're reclining at table. That means this was a big feast. This was the posture of dining at feast in the Greco-Roman world. Regular meals, people would just sit at tables. Luxurious meals, they would sit back and enjoy themselves. What we see here is they're relaxed. Their guards are down. They're having a good time. There's food, friendship, fellowship, and Jesus is at the center and he's teaching them the word of God. There's tax collectors and they're sinners. What's the religious establishment do?

They get worried. On Mark 2:16, and the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" The scribes of the Pharisees, these are the people who are in charge of religion. They're in charge of who's in and who's out, who's clean and who's unclean, who's righteous and who's unrighteous. They don't view that Jesus is following their traditions. He's not following their traditions.

In their traditions, you don't hang out with tax collectors and sinners. Those people are sinners. We are the righteous. We're better than they are. They don't belong in our presence. The New Living Translation that translates the tail end of verse 16, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners, it puts it like this. Why does he eat with such scum? It brings out the hatred that they experienced toward these people. Why does he eat with such scum? They didn't view these people as in need of righteousness.

They view these people as people that could never receive forgiveness, could never be entered into the kingdom of God. I wonder if you have people in your life that you categorize in this category. You might not say they're scum, but they're like people that even Jesus couldn't save them. Do you have people like that in your mind? For me, I got a love-hate relationship with tow truck drivers. Tow truck drivers, they're number one. Number two is parking enforcement. But tow truck drivers, I view them as tax collectors because they can charge whatever they want.

If they got your car, they take it to their lot and they charge you for the towing fee, the parking fee, all their fees, and then you pay for the ticket on top of that. Jesus said we got to love everyone, but he also said you are to love your enemy. They've been kind of my enemy camp, like tow truck drivers, and they're in that camp until you need them. A couple of weeks ago, I shared that I had issues with my car, with my Suburban, battery problems. We fixed the battery. Friday I drive.

For two weeks I was good. Friday I drive home, park the truck, then I go later, restart it. I put it in my parking spot, dead, dead. All the lights are on but won't start. Click, click, click. I tried to do everything I could, and in the morning I went to the mechanic. The mechanic's like, "You got to bring it here." I don't know what to do. He's like, "Here's a phone number." I was like, "Of who?" He's like, "A tow truck driver." I was like, oh no. Cassidy Towing pulls up. I like that little motto, the small business, their motto is Don't Cuss, Call Us.

A gentleman comes out of the tow truck and he's like, "What do we got here?" Thick Boston accent. I'm like, yeah, I love these people, but love-hate relationship. I was like, "It's not the battery." He's like, "It's the battery. Trust me." I was like, "It's not the battery." He slams his hand in my door and then he just started cussing really loud. It's Saturday morning. I was like, dude, come on. I got to live with my neighbors. I was like, it says right there, don't cuss. So then we got to talking and there's a car behind my truck.

He's like, "We got to get this car moved if we're going to tow." I was like, all right, I guess we'll wait. And then immediately at that moment a lady comes down and she's like, "Oh, you need to move my car?" I'm like, yeah. I told him, "I guess God hasn't forgotten us yet." He's like, "You think so?" I was like, oh, that's my in. Great. His name's Matt and he let me drive in his truck as he's taken to the mechanic. And then we got to talking and got to talk about his family, got to talk about the fact that he grew up in Brookline.

His grandma's been here since '77. He went to Devotion School, formerly known as Devotion School, and we got to talking. He's like, "What do you do?" I was like, "I'm a pastor." He's like, "You're a pastor." I was like, "You should come to our church." He's like, "Oh yeah." We got to talk about the Lord. I'm praying for Matt. I pray for people like that where it's like, you know what? Probably not welcome anywhere, but they're welcome here. We welcome sinners because Jesus welcome sinners and we're all sinners.

This posture of the Pharisees of they're scum and we're not, that's what actually kept them from salvation. That's what kept them from knowing that Jesus Christ is Lord and Jesus Christ is savior. They thought that if we spend time with sinners, we are going to be infected with their sin. What Jesus Christ is telling them is everyone's infected with sin. Everyone's soul is sick with sin. If you think that you're healthy, you're never going to go to Jesus the physician to ask for healing for your soul.

But if you know that you're unhealthy, if you know that you're sick, that's the first step to being healed. That's what Jesus tells them in verse 17. When Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." Jesus came not to call the righteous. What's he mean? He means self-righteous. He means people who think I don't need God because they measure righteousness according to their own standards.

That's what the Pharisees did. By what standard do we figure out if we're righteous? By the standard of God's 10 Commandments. Did the Pharisees fulfill the 10 Commandments from the heart all of their life? Of course, they didn't. They themselves were sinners. They themselves were unrighteous, but they didn't see that. Pride was in the way. This is how we are to do evangelism and share the good news of Jesus Christ. Invite sinners into your home. The way we do church at Mosaic is we simplify the church.

We expect that you come to worship gatherings, and we expect that you come to a community group during the week, but we don't want you to spend much more time with just believers. Hanging out with believers is fun. Bible studies is fun. Studying theology is fun. We can't forget we have a mission. In a place like Boston where everyone's really busy, everyone's got a lot of stress in their life, we have to carve out time to spend with those who are far from the Lord to get to know them, to invite them to your house, to have a meal, to practice hospitality, and to introduce them to Jesus Christ, the great physician of our soul.

Your soul, dear friend, is sick apart from Jesus Christ. It's sick with sin and Jesus is the only one who can heal you. He heals you at the very moment that you ask for him to forgive you, you repent and you say, "Lord Jesus, I want to follow you. I want to follow you like Levi no matter what's keeping me back from you. I want to leave the sin. I want to leave anything that easily entangles and follow you." In John 17:15-17, Jesus prays for his disciples. He says, "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." Jesus saves us in the world. We are not of the world, so we're not like the world, but we're in the world. As saved sinners, as sanctified sinners, we are to do everything possible to be sanctified by the word of truth and then to share that same word with those who are far from the Lord. Point two is King Jesus serves new wine.

In verse 18, now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, "Why did John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" A fasting in holy scripture is abstaining from food for spiritual reasons. The Pharisees, they saw in scripture that there is fasting. People of God do fast, abstain from food for prayer and for proximity to the Lord. There was one day that was commanded for fasting, that was a day of atonement for everyone once a year.

But what this passage is concerned with is not the annual fast, but the additional voluntary fast that were practiced by the Pharisees. This is how they wanted to show the people around them how fastidious they were in their spirituality, just how religious they were. They assumed that Jesus Christ did not fast because his disciples didn't fast. Did Jesus Christ fast? Yeah, he fasted for 40 days. They just didn't know about it because he didn't fast to be seen by people. But Jesus does tell us that in the Sermon on the Mount we are to fast.

In Matthew 6:16, when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. The disciples of John fasted. The disciples of the Pharisees fasted. But Jesus says, while I'm here in my physical presence, my disciples do not need to fast.

Because what's the point of fasting? The point of fasting is to come closer to the Lord. The word says, if you come close to God, he will come close to you. If the point of fasting is proximity to the Lord, when the Lord is with the disciples, they don't need to fast because they already have his physical presence. Jesus says, "When I do leave, then my disciples will fast." Well, why didn't the disciples need to fast? Because Jesus answers in verse 19, Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast." In Jewish law, wedding guests were freed from certain religious obligations in particular because of the wedding. If there was a day of fasting, they were not obligated to do it. Why? Because what's the point of a wedding? It's to rejoice. Jesus says, "I am the groom. And in my presence, we are not a fast but feast." Imagine going into a wedding. It's a good wedding where they've got appetizers. The best weddings, the appetizers are the scallops wrapped in bacon.

If you see one of those coming out, that's a good wedding. Imagine there's a plate they bring you and you're like, "Oh, no, thank you." What? And then the next waiter comes with the lamb chops. Oh, that's next level. You're like, "Oh, no, thank you." Why aren't you? I'm fasting. You're fasting on a feast day? That doesn't make any sense. Jesus, he is the bridegroom, John the Baptist in John 3:28, the text says, you yourselves bear me witness, that I said, "I'm not the Christ, but I've been sent before him."

The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease. Here, Jesus by invoking the wedding imagery, he's saying that the Messianic Age has arrived. In Isaiah 62, the future redemption is compared to a wedding feast.

Isaiah 62:4, you shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight is in Her, and your land Married, for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. Jesus is the bridegroom. He's the groom. Everything he did, he did in order to redeem a bride.

That was the point of his whole life. That was his goal. That was the goal of the sacrifice on the cross. The bride is the church. The bride is all the redeemed. The bride is us. Verse 20, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. Jesus here by using the phrase taken away, that's a phrase from Isaiah 53:8. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

He's alluding here to the fact that he will be taken away, his physical presence will be taken away through the crucifixion, resurrection, and then ascension. And then when he is physically taken away, we are to fast. Fasting from food for the purpose of drawing closer to the Lord should be a regular rhythm of our lives as followers of Christ. Verse 21, no one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, and the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.

Here he's talking about a new cloth was not pre-shrunk and the process of washing and drying the garment would cause it to shrink. What he's saying is you can't just come to Jesus and say, "Jesus, I need a new patch of grace. I need a new patch of forgiveness." He's saying that when you come to the Lord, he doesn't just patch you up. When you come to the Lord, you become a new creation. You are regenerated from the inside out, and that's how God's kingdom grows from the inside out.

You get a new heart and that new heart is filled with the Holy Spirit, and then Jesus Christ clothes you with the robes of his righteousness, not just he patches up areas of your life. In the old garment, that imagery is used in Hebrews 1, where Christ rolls up this old world garment and unfurls the new cosmos. Hebrews 1:10-12, and you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you'll remain. They will wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed.

But you are the same, and your years will have no end. Jesus is saying something brand new is here. He is bringing in the new covenant, ushering in the new covenant. The new covenant is different from the old covenant because the old covenant did not give us internal power to fulfill the law. A lot of people think that the new covenant abrogates or gets rid of the 10 Commandments. It does not.

The new covenant actually, it says in the new covenant, it says God will give you a new heart and he will write his laws upon your heart, imprint them on your mind, where you want to do the will of God, the 10 Commandments, from your heart because you love God and you love people. And then finally, you have the power to do it because of the Holy Spirit. That's why he brings in the wine imagery in verse 22. No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins.

But new wine is for fresh wineskins. The new wine was a symbol of the new age, like in John 2, or Jesus at the wedding in Canaan in Galilee turns 180 gallons of water into wine saying that the new Messianic era is here. Jesus doesn't just pour in the Holy Spirit into our hearts. No. First, he regenerates our hearts, that's the changing of the wineskins, and then brings in the new wine. The imagery there is that wine was kept in leather skins and old skins were less flexible and fermenting wine kept inside of them would expand and sometimes burst the skins.

If you put new wine into old skins, it's going to burst and you ruin both the old and the new. You need new wine for new wineskins. What he's saying here is don't just come to the Lord with your preconceived human traditional categories and say, "How does God fit into my categories? How does God fit into my manmade humanistic paradigms?" No. When you come to the Lord, you say, "Lord, obliterate any paradigm that is not from you. Build up your paradigms in my mind and heart, and then give me the power to live according to them."

Whenever the fresh life of the spirit breathes into the church new life, paradigm shifting category, destroying life comes in. Christianity with all its outward differences was not a breach of Judaism, but its fulfillment. And now with the Holy Spirit offered to us, and when you come to the Lord, you repent of your sin, he gives it a new heart to house the Spirit of God. Jesus has been physically absent since his ascension, but that absence is paradoxically the means by which his presence is achieved.

And then we see in the text following an escalation in the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus' disciples are implicitly accused of breaking the pharisaic traditions first of the table fellowship and now of fasting. But now the Pharisees are like, okay, it's not just our traditions. Now he is breaking, they are breaking our interpretation of the law. And that's point three, King Jesus's Lord of the Sabbath. One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields. And as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

And the Pharisees were saying to them, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" The disciples are a little hungry. Perhaps all the fasting talk got them are really hungry. They want a little snack and they're making a little snack in the grain field. The Pharisees, who've been spying on them, by the way, it sounds like a lot of work that they're doing spying on them, but they come to Jesus and they're like, "They're breaking the law." That's why they use the word lawful.

They're doing what is not lawful. Jesus dining with the tax collectors and sinners, they couldn't say that was not lawful. They said that he's breaking our traditions, he's breaking public spiritual decorum, religious decorum. And now here they are accusing them, the disciples and Jesus, of breaking the fourth commandment, the commandment requiring the keeping of the Sabbath Day. They knew that this was an important commandment. It's the longest of the commandments.

It's the only one that hearkens back to creation. It's the only one in which we are commanded actually to imitate God himself. They noticed that among the 10 Commandments, this one receives special attention. Exodus 20:8- 11. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea in all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and made it holy. Is this commandment relevant to us today? Well, of course, all 10 Commandments were given to all people that lived in all places at all times. This is how God decrees how he wants us to live. This is how King Jesus rules his kingdom by the 10 laws. They're commandments. They're not just recommendations. This is the law of God.

This commandment, number four, is part of the first four that show us how we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. If you love God because he has first loved you, you devote a full day, every seven days you devote a full day of the week totally to God. God, this day is holy. You made it holy. God, I want to bless you on this day, and I pray this day is a blessing. Do you want the fullness of life that King Jesus offers? Keep the Sabbath. This, of course, includes gathering with the people of God to worship God.

We worship God because that's his due, and God commands you to attend church. We are to gather with the people of God, and we do it on Sunday because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday and the church was birthed on Pentecost Sunday. Obviously we are to go to church on a Sunday. By the way, if you notice how Jesus operates, he's in synagogue on every Sunday. This is where the Pharisees get him. Whenever there's a Sabbath, he's in the synagogue and he's teaching the word of God.

What's he teaching? He's teaching them that we've transgressed the 10 Commandments. And by the way, the 10 Commandments, this is where you show people their need for grace. In evangelism, a lot of people want to talk about Jesus and grace first, which doesn't make much sense to people who think that they haven't broken any commandments. God has given us the 10 Commandments. You show people where they've transgressed commandments, and that the penalty for sin is death for eternity in a place called hell.

We need Jesus Christ. This is how I share the gospel. Whenever I see someone breaking a commandment in my presence, I've gotten to the point where I just call them to repentance right then and there. With a smile and loving, I just call them to repentance. I was at the boxing gym this week and we're doing grueling workout on Thursdays. It's me and my friend Billy. Billy and I are brothers in big arms. That's what we call each other. Billy is next to me. The grueling part of the workout, the first 20 minutes we're just dead, and I sat down for a sip of water.

He comes up to me and he says, "Jesus Christ!" He said it like that. I said, "Is king, Billy." I was like, "You transgressed the third commandment, Billy." He's like, "Oh yeah, I used the Lord's name in vain." I said, "Billy, you need to repent. "He said, "I repent." I was like, "King Jesus forgives you. Now follow him." And then we continued the rest of the workout. I planted the seed. We're going to continue the conversation, but that's what transgression, you broke the law, which shows you your need for Jesus Christ, the only one who lived according to the law perfectly.

Therefore, he could represent us on the cross. The Pharisees are spying on Jesus here. They're waiting to catch him in some transgression. If they had caught him in transgression, they would have presented that as evidence at his trial before the Sanhedrin. They had no evidence to present. Therefore, they knew that he did not break the commandment. He broke their interpretation of the commandment, which would not hold up in the Sanhedrin. Jesus could not be accused of breaking any of the commandments at his trial.

That's why they had to bring in false witnesses, and we see that later on in the text. Jesus isn't breaking their commandments. The Pharisees aren't breaking their commandments. The Pharisees viewed this as work because they viewed it as a subset of reaping which is prohibited on the Sabbath. That's how they operate. That's how they built their rules. They said, okay, here's the 10 Commandments, but then how does that work out in real life?

They would add their own interpretations, and then their interpretation distorted the word of God because their interpretations were more important than the word of God in defining what is sin and was not. How does Jesus respond to this in Mark 2:25? And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?"

First of all, just notice how Jesus argues with them. He says, "Have you never read?" He counters their misinterpretation of God's word with God's word. In the story of David and Abiathar the high priest, David and his soldiers are exhausted and they enter the house of God. They're hungry. They're famished. He said, "Do you have any bread?" They said, "We have bread, but this is bread that's only allowed for priests to eat." They would bake 12 loaves, and on the Sabbath they would leave it on the table and then wait for a week.

And then next week, those 12 pieces of bread... What's the word? Those pieces of bread were then replaced, and then the priests would eat that bread. The issue here is that the ceremonial law, that's the law that Jesus is referring to with Abiathar the high priest. That's part of the ceremonial law. If you study God's law, the 10 Commandments, that's the moral law. That's for everyone. The ceremonial law, that was how you are atoned before God, made righteous before God.

David comes in and says, "God's law, the 10 Commandments, is more important than the ceremonial law. Because if we don't eat, my soldiers are going to die. The word says thou shall not kill." That's the issue that's going on. That's why Jesus goes to this example of the loaf. What Jesus is saying is if David could say that the moral law was higher than the ceremonial law, how much higher is God's moral law over human interpretation and the rabbinic traditions, et cetera? Jesus here trumps their human traditions with God's law with the 10 Commandments.

I saw a clip of a famous podcaster, and he was just talking about... He's like, "Human existence is the greatest thing in the universe." He said, "I wish we had a manual for how human existence could be best done. What's the optimal way of living? What are the hazards that we are to stay away from?" I'm like, this is it, bro. That's what the 10 Commandments are. This is why Jesus said, this is for life. This is the fullness of life. The commandments are given to us as a manual. It shows us how we best operate.

It shows us how we can be connected with God, how we can love one another, and it shows us that when we break the commandments, there's grace that we can access. Thanks be to Jesus Christ. And then Jesus says that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Why? Because the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, is king of kings and the 10 Commandments is his 10 Commandments, and the fourth commandment is ruled under Jesus Christ. He says that Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

The Pharisees, they lived for the Sabbath. Fulfilling the Sabbath was so much work that it wasn't restful for people, and Jesus restores the compassionate aspect of the original Sabbath, which in the interim was effaced by the hardheartedness of the Pharisees. Have you always kept the fourth commandment from the heart all of your life? No, you have not. You have transgressed that commandment. I have transgressed that commandment. What is Jesus telling us today?

We are to repent, and we're to ask for forgiveness and make the Sabbath a priority. Jesus obeyed it, all of the law, to forgive us for disobeying the law. Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and then he said with his last breath, "It is finished." And then his body rested in a tomb on the Sabbath, and Jesus rose victoriously on Sunday in order to give us power to devote every Sunday to him. This is how you and I follow the risen, ruling, and reigning king. This is how we begin to live life to the full by saying, you know what?

Every start of the week, the first day, I'm going to devote to the Lord, and this is how I'm going to seek first the kingdom of God. And everything else shall be added onto you. Today is Holy Communion Sunday. We talk about bread, the loaves of the Presence, and we talked about the new wine. Jesus Christ gave us Holy Communion and he gave us the symbols of bread and wine in order to turn our attention, to focus our attention and our memory on the suffering of Christ on the cross.

I'm going to read 1 Corinthians 11:23-32. For whom is Holy Communion? Holy Communion is for repentant followers of Jesus Christ. If there is unrepented sin in your life that you know of, right now is an opportunity for you to repent and trust in Jesus Christ to receive grace. If you do not repent, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service. But if you today repent of sin and turn to Christ, you're welcome to partake. I'm going to read 1 Corinthians 11:23-32.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also, he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

If you'd like to partake in communion and you have not received the elements, please raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring them to you. With that, I will pray over Holy Communion. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of salvation that was purchased for us on the cross by Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, you were absolutely without sin. You had never sinned, not even once. There was not one commandment that you broke. You gladly lived a life of obedience to God the Father, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Lord Jesus today, we remember your sufferings on the cross. We remember that your body was pierced with nails as you were crucified to that tree. Lord, your blood was poured out so that we could be forgiven. We remember your body that was broken so that we could have healing from the great physician. We remember your blood, which removes our guilt and shame. Lord, today we come to you with contrition of heart. We come to you with humility, recognizing that we are not righteous, recognizing that we are like the tax collectors and the sinners.

We are like the scum of this earth. And yet, Lord, you chose to love us, you chose to pour out your love for us, and you chose to call us to yourself. Lord Jesus, as we partake in Holy Communion now, I pray that this will be a blessing for us. I pray as we receive the bread and the cup and as we internalize these physical symbols, I pray that we also receive your grace, and that by your grace we are transformed from the inside out. We pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen. There are two lids, one at the top, which opens the cup, and one at the bottom, which opens the bread.

On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus Christ took the bread. And after breaking it, he said, "This is my body broken for you. Take, eat, and do this in remembrance of me." He then proceeded to take the cup and he said, "This cup is the cup of the new covenant of my blood, which is poured out for the sins of many. Take, drink, and do this in remembrance of me." Lord Jesus, we thank you that you came with power, and we thank you that your word is effectual. That when you tell us to repent, you also give us the power to repent.

When you tell us to follow you, you give us the power to do it. When you tell us to believe and trust in you, you give us the gift of faith. I pray that you, Lord, continue to draw us closer to yourself, continue to sanctify us from sin, and continue to empower us to be witnesses of your grace, witnesses of salvation to all those around us.

I pray that we follow the example of Levi, who threw a great feast for all his tax collector and sinner friends, and invited you to be the center of this so they can meet you, so they could have their sins forgiven, so they could follow you and be transformed from the inside out. I pray, Lord, that you empower us to do the same with our friends, with our neighbors, with everyone around us, Lord, who is far from you.

Lord, continue to draw them to yourself and continue to miraculously build up your kingdom here in Brookline and Boston, Massachusetts and beyond. We pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen.