The Book Of Mark # 12

Illus: This reminds me of a young boy that found himself in the locker room of the local YWCA. When he was spotted, the room burst into screams of horror, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover.

The little boy watched in amazement and said “What’s the matter haven’t you ever seen a little boy before?”

The Jewish Sabbath was Saturday, the day the Jews set aside for worship each week. After the resurrection, Christians began to worship on Sunday, the first day of the week.

Every Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, but in actuality, every time we come together on the LORD’S DAY, it is to celebrate His resurrection.

The Jews had very strict rules about the Sabbath. Even to this day, if you visit Israel you will discover that almost every Jewish business in town is shut down. The Jews have always had a high regard for their Sabbath.

Illus: When Joe Liberman was running with Al Gore, for Vice President of the United States, he restricted his campaigning on Saturdays because it was his Sabbath.

Some of the strictness of the Jewish Sabbath has transferred over to Christianity. For example, do you remember the old blue laws?

The term "blue laws" originally applied to laws enacted by the Puritans in the seventeenth-century to regulate moral behavior, especially what people must or must not do on the Sabbath.

When these laws were broken, it called for rather harsh punishments to be applied to offenders. Originally, these blue laws specified penalties for moral offenses such as:

• Failure to attend church on Sunday

• Lying

• Swearing

• Drunkenness

• The playing of games in public (such as cards, dice, and shuffleboard)

They also mandated more severe punishments for crimes committed on Sunday, and regulated the sale and consumption of alcohol.

Violators of blue laws:

• Might be assessed monetary fines

• Might be whipped

• Might be forced to spend time in the stocks

• Might have body parts burned or cut off

• Might even receive the death penalty

As the influence of the colonial Puritan theocracies declined after the American Revolution, the blue laws began to be ignored.

Why were these regulations called "Blue laws"? With no obvious explanation at hand, many seem to think it came from the fact they were written on blue paper or bound in books with blue covers. There is no actual proof this is why they are called Blue Laws, but this is where some suppose the name came from. And if we are going to guess, this is probably as good as anything!

When many of us were children, we can remember that many stores were closed on Sunday. Sunday was viewed as the equivalent to the Old Testament Jewish Sabbath Day. It was to be a day of rest and worship. In many Christian homes, Sunday was observed with almost the same rigidity the Pharisees forced upon the Jews.

Today the pendulum has swung almost to the opposite extreme, where not only in our society but also in many Christian homes there is almost no importance placed on the Lord's Day.

• There was a time when adults would not think of taking a job that required them work on the Lord’s Day.

• There was a time when parents would not allow their children to find a job that required them to work on Sunday.

• There was a time when people would not think of playing sports on the Lord’s Day. Today, they have little league baseball practice, car races, and professional football on the Lord’s Day.

Today the Lord’s Day is like any other day, and THIS IS NOT GOOD!

Illus: An atheist said, “Before we can destroy Christianity we must first destroy their day of worship.”

This seems to be something that Satan has done very successfully.

We certainly do not want to return to the nonsense days of the early Puritans, but when it comes to the day of worship, we need to ask ourselves some questions, such as:

• What was the purpose of the Sabbath?

• Are Christians commanded to observe the Sabbath?

• Is the Lord's Day the Sabbath?

• What should our attitude be toward the Lord's Day?

To help us answer these questions, let's look at Mark 2:23-28.

First we see...

I. THE ENCOUNTER ON THE SABBATH DAY

Look at verses 23-24, we read, “And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?”

Jesus and His disciples were walking through a field of grain on the Sabbath, on their way to worship at the synagogue. The disciples were hungry and decided to pluck some of the grain.