Work On Sabbath? Series

Please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke Chapter 13….

We noted last week from the first 9 verses of Luke 13, Justification of being a good person by comparing oneself to others is foolishness to God and if one does not repent from this attitude, God will make death painful and humiliating!

We can all fall into this trap can’t we? We all have a tendency to justify ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. We can even get angry when someone else is better than us. We will see this in our passage today. We are to note that only God knows everything. We must be careful of being judgmental and having an angry attitude which only leads to God’s rebuke.

Before reading our text, let us together pray our commitment to God’s Word…

As we read our passage, let us remember that when Jesus was walking the earth, the only Word of God the people knew was the Old Testament. And in the Old Testament God said in the 4th Commandment, “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

Did Jesus do a no-no on a Sabbath Day?

Read along with me now Luke 13:10-17…..

According to the 4th Commandment from God, the Sabbath day is to be holy and no work shall be done. What did Jesus do on a Sabbath day?

v10: On a Sabbath Day Jesus was teaching!

Let us quickly note that Jesus was not rebuked about teaching; apparently teaching on a Sabbath Day is acceptable work and Jesus’ teaching was holy! And of course, the synagogue leader cannot rebuke Jesus about teaching because that is what was done by the synagogue leaders.

What else did Jesus do on a Sabbath Day?

v12-13: Jesus healed a person.

Now, I think it is worth noting, and it can be easily missed, that the woman was not healed without her own effort. Let us note that the woman responded to Jesus by coming to Him. Jesus told her to come forward and she did, even in her crippled state! Here’s a Biblical principle: No matter how difficult it may seem, complete healing happens after trusting and obeying Jesus Christ.

Now in v14-17, we read the other lesson from this passage.

The synagogue leader actually did not rebuke Jesus directly. We read in v14 that the synagogue leader rebuked the people for working on a Sabbath Day; and so again this affirms that the woman did something before being completely healed.

Jesus responded and, let us remember, Jesus can read people’s minds; and so, the rebuke to work on a Sabbath Day was towards Jesus Christ!

The synagogue leader rebuked the people and Jesus because in his view the people and Jesus were sinning against God; in the religious leaders’ view doing work on a Sabbath Day was a sin! The synagogue leader thought he was so in the right that he was angry!

Because the synagogue leader was angrily judgmental based on his own view rather than God’s, he was, what we phrase today, being “legalistic”. Problems with being legalistic, as we can note, are anger instead of love and hypocrisy. In v15, Jesus confronted the leaders of legalism and hypocrisy when they too do “work” on a Sabbath Day. In v16, Jesus did work but it was a work out of love!

And remember what we noted from the beginning of Luke 13; every sin no matter how small or big is detestable to God. We also can note this in v17. Everyone is guilty of sin and only God has the right to judge a person (Luke 13:1-8, 17)!

And let us not miss what God through the writer Luke stated at the end of v17,… but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. God looks for people who delight in the work of Jesus Christ!

What Biblical principles from this passage can we apply to our lives today?

First of all, the Sabbath Day before Jesus Christ is not the same as the Sabbath Day for today, but the principle of Sabbath holiness and rest will always apply. Let us note that in heaven there will be holiness and rest forever! Heaven is a place of forever Sabbath. Be sure you know how to get there!