Welcome to Sacramento central Seventh-day Adventist Church. We're so glad that you're tuning in. Whether this is your first time or you're with us every week, we're just excited to sing songs together today and open up God's word and study together. I hope you've had a lovely week. I have and I'm just - but I'm always very thankful when it's Sabbath because it just seems like we go and we go and we go and if you really didn't have that day to just stop - I don't know how people do it that just don't have 24 hours to stop what you're doing and just rest.
So we're so thankful for the Sabbath. If you're watching on our website today at 'saccentral.org' or on the various television networks or joining us on the radio, we're going to sing together at this time so if you have a hymnal, pull it out with us and join with us - #152 - we're going to start with 'tell me the story of Jesus,' which comes as a request from - there was a long list of names but I picked a smattering from around the world. Amy, beth, chuck, neal, and Michael in Canada, hanock in Ethiopia, rosemarie and caleb in guayana, and eliroo in nigeria. First, second, all three stanzas. There we go.
#152. At this time I invite you to please join with us in prayer. Father in Heaven, may it always be your will and not ours. May we always submit to you as our loving Heavenly Father because you know what's best for us and sometimes - many times - we think we have it figured out. We think that our way is better than yours and sometimes you teach us very valuable lessons and I just pray that we will trust you and that we will always rest assured in your promises that you are looking out for us and your ways are always better than ours.
Father, thank you so much for bringing us here to open up your word and study together. I pray that you'll be with us. Be with our extended family around the world. Be with each one in a very special way and our speaker. In Jesus' Name, amen.
At this time our lesson study will be brought to us by Pastor Doug Batchelor. I want to welcome our friends who are watching on television and we'll be continuing in just a moment with our study on the teachings of Jesus, but some of you know that central church and the Sabbath school has been in a little bit of transition in the last few months. I'd like to invite pastor chris buttery - I think he's off to my right somewhere - if he could join me, we're going to just share with you, a little bit, some of what is going on. You know, Amazing Facts - we were thinking about it this week - Amazing Facts' Sabbath school or central Sabbath school has been on the air now for, we think, seventeen years and it started - it's okay pastor chris, come on up - it started as an experiment. We had a request from 3abn.
They said, 'you know, you're taping a church service, it'd be nice to have a Sabbath school as well. And so we just started throwing it together and the Lord blessed and it's been going now and we hear these song requests coming in from around the world and as I travel I hear people around the world say they're studying with us. But as some of you know - some who are watching may not know - central church is one of the oldest adventist churches in California and it's been responsible for planting a number of churches in the greater Sacramento area. About seven years ago central worked together and decided to plant a church in Granite Bay. Granite Bay is a suburb that is sort of east of Sacramento and - with the idea - it's pretty close to the Amazing Facts' offices - that someday we'd also be recording services over there as the Lord blessed and the Lord blessed and the church grew.
I knew I'd also be moving over there at some point and we started in a home and then went to a high school and for the last seven - eight years we've been renting a presbyterian church. But we're not able to tape there because we only have it a couple of hours a week. But in January I knew that central was going to be in very capable hands. I thought the time had come where I should step down as senior pastor. In the convening time, the conference executive committee and you folks have asked - chris buttery is now the senior pastor of central church.
But central's been very nice in that they've let Amazing Facts keep taping because we had nowhere to go to tape our Sabbath school. Well, we're coming to a point of transition now. We thought for the next couple of weeks we ought to, at least, give you a picture of what's happening and - just so everyone knows what's going on. Do you want to say anything? I would say that Amazing Facts has also been very gracious to central in providing the equipment still to allow us to live-stream to our online audience and also our church services as well, giving us a chance to actually get our equipment in and get things set up so we can continue on with our media program here. Absolutely.
You know, there's a story in the Bible where Jesus was talking to Peter when he was in his boat on the shore and he told Peter to throw his net out on the water and they got such a big catch that both boats were full. Now when we started doing Sabbath school, there was really only one adventist network back then, but in the convening years there must be at least a dozen, when you count the other languages, adventist satellite networks that are out. So the demand for programming has gone up. And, you know, the more lines you have in the water, the more fish you catch, right? And so, when we reach the end of our quarterly dealing with the teachings of Jesus and we start with the teachings of James, actually we're going to continue taping at both areas. Both groups are going to continue recording.
And you'll continue doing media, Sabbath school, and other things here at central church. That's the plan, Pastor Doug. We're hoping that - we're certainly going to continue live streaming to our online members and visitors and guests and - with central study hour and also we'll - we're going to make the programs - edited, recorded programs - available on our website, which is 'saccentral.org' - so people can tune in and watch the lesson if they want to ahead of time, just like they've been doing via 3abn and hope and, hopefully, they'll also continue the programming as well, as we get into October and into the new quarterly so it's kind of exciting. What about Amazing Facts, because I needed to ask you too - Amazing Facts and granite bay's programs - how are you proceeding with that and where can folk access those programs? Well the - first of all, just so everyone knows, the satellite networks that you're seeing that carry these programs, none of them have charged for the Sabbath school programming. It's just been their kindness so make sure and contact them and tell them you want to continue to see more of these Bible studies.
So it's really up to them. But, God willing, the amazing facts Sabbath school program will continue to broadcast, and stations allowing, during the same times. And central not only does Sabbath school and worship services, but I believe this church is going to continue to be a place for media convocations. We've had asi here and there's been training and evangelism - and so we just want to encourage you to continue to pray for both churches as we continue to do media. Now - right now, central church is going to continue doing broadcasting here every week, as they do.
Amazing Facts doesn't have a full-time facility yet. We did buy, earlier this year, an office/warehouse building right near our office that will host the Granite Bay church for the immediate future. It's not renovated yet and so, for the time being, we'll be taping Sabbath school during our prayer meeting time - we started our first one this week. So beginning with the book of James we'll be broadcasting from the Amazing Facts' studio until we can get in the warehouse that we bought and start taping there. So that's - they'll see things look like they're in transition for a little while.
We thought it's important that our extended class understand what is happening. Yeah, I'm in full agreement and we'll be praying for granite bay and Amazing Facts' venture as they move forward as well. And we know you folk are praying for central as we continue on as well, Pastor Doug. Amen. These churches are family.
Amen? Amen. Thank you. And we'll tell you more in the weeks that follow and we just want to see the mission of Christ fulfilled in the world. We want to remind our friends that, along with our study today, that happens to be on the subject of the Sabbath, Jesus - the teachings of Jesus and the Sabbath - we have a free offer. Right here, it's a book by joe crews and it's called 'why God said remember.
' Why God said remember. We will send it to you for free. We simply ask that you read it. We hope after you read it that you pass it on. And it turns into evangelism.
Call the number on your screen - -study-more - that's -788-3966 and ask for offer #185. You know, I was born with a serious lisp and it got a lot better when I had braces about years ago - or 25 years ago - but I still have to really work on 'douglas' and 'six'. I have to just really fight to say those things because it's so hard for me. You can probably tell still - still tell I have a lisp. Anyway, get the book on the Sabbath.
We're going into our lesson on 'the Sabbath.' This is going to be a tough one for me - lots of 'esses' in today's study. And it's lesson #11 - we have a memory verse - memory verse is Mark 2, verses 27 and 28 and I always appreciate if you say that with me in a robust voice. We're going to read it in just a moment. You ready? Mark 2:27 and 28. Here we go.
"And he said to them, 'the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore The Son of man is also lord of the Sabbath.'" Now sometimes people think that Jesus, here, was saying, 'I came to do away with the Sabbath.' When he said, 'I'm lord of the Sabbath.' But notice, he didn't say the Sabbath was made for jews - it would have been a good place to say that. Some people think the Sabbath began at Mount Sinai during the Exodus. But Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man as in mankind - humanity - all men. And where does he point back to? The Garden of Eden with the first man and the first Sabbath.
I've actually heard some Sunday-keeping Bible commentators say, 'God didn't really require Sabbath observance until the Exodus when it was given at Mount Sinai. That is not true. You can find, in the Bible, it says, before they got to Mount Sinai that, when God poured out the manna, he said, 'don't go looking for manna on the Sabbath - that's the day of rest. They hadn't even gotten there, but they knew that that was a day of rest. Then he said, 'why aren't you keeping my Sabbaths? And even when Moses first went to pharaoh, before they even got into the wilderness, pharaoh said, 'you are making the people Sabbath and so I am going to increase their workload and they've got to make their bricks without straw now.
And so there's evidence that the Sabbath was kept, by the faithful of God, all the way back to the beginning. I have a list - I didn't bring it with me this morning - but I've got a list of 145 languages of the world - different languages - their word for Saturday. And in most of those languages - well, in all 145 on my list - the word is 'Sabbath.' In russian the word for Saturday? Subotnik, which is Sabbath. In spanish, the word for Saturday - used - many - what is it? Sabado, right? And many other languages of the world. So it's pretty clear that the Sabbath was known by other languages and other nations beside Israel, going back to creation.
It's one of the earliest institutions, right there with marriage. So let's get into the teachings of Jesus dealing with the Sabbath day. First of all, we're going to talk about Christ the creator of the Sabbath. So someone look up for me - we've got some microphones, I think, and I need someone who has Colossians 1:16. You've got your big fortune cookie with a Scripture on it.
We'll get you a microphone. You'll be next. Get ready and I'll be - when they signal me, we'll go to you. And I'm going to read John 1 - everyone knows these immortal words - John 1:1-3 - the gospel of John. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
He" - now it's talking about word it says 'he' - who is it talking about? Jesus - "he was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made." Nothing was made that was made without him. All things were made by Jesus. Let's go to that next verse in Colossians 1:16. Colossians 1:16, "for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created through him and for him." All things. Again, we read that in John, now we're reading it in Colossians by Paul - all things that were made. God has created all things through Jesus. Matter of fact, if you look in Isaiah 45:12 the Lord says, "I have made the earth, and created man on it. I - my hands - stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded.
" And, of course, the heavens - astronomy dictates our time - I just want to remind you - does the whole world recognize the seven-day week? Okay. Does the whole civilized world recognize that the day has about 24 hours? Does the whole civilized world have a year divided up into approximately twelve months? With a leap year? The whole world, universally, recognizes that. We can understand why the whole world has a month with about 30 days in it. The word 'month' comes from a primitive word - where we get the word 'moon' and it's because our months are loosely - they originated with the lunar calendar. Now we're really following a solar calendar, but we still keep months because it started with that 27-day division.
We all have a year - now the different cultures of the world - even in the Americas among the aztecs and the incas and in africa, they had years that were divided up by the months or the moon cycles and - with 365 or - the jews had a lunar calendar with 360 days but they'd add an extra month every years but they all had about - 365 days in it because, astronomically, that's how long it took the earth to make a complete circle around the sun and they could see that and observe it in the heavens. So here's the question: why does the whole world observe a seven-day week? What in the sun, moon, or stars - astronomy - gives us a seven-day week? You can really only trace it to 'in the beginning God said.' You know France tried to go to a ten-day week - it didn't work. Did you know that earlier on, the American military, in looking for efficiency, tried to put the soldiers on a schedule of working nine days and resting on the tenth. This was back during the war when they were just trying to milk the maximum - they wanted to know to what lengths they could push a human without breakdown - how frequently they needed rest. They tried doing it once every ten days, it didn't work.
And they realized that the best schedule for the human body is to rest from your regular labor one day in seven. And so the world's pretty well accepted that now and even medical science is. So this is God's design. God created the Sabbath. One more verse for you on that: Hebrews 1, verses 1 and 2 - talking about Jesus the creator.
"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to The Fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds." So through whom did God make the worlds? Jesus. So all of that is said to emphasize a very important point that when Jesus talks about the Sabbath and he says 'The Son of man is lord of the Sabbath.' He really is the Lord of the Sabbath in that all things that were made are made by him. He made the Sabbath and so what Jesus says regarding the Sabbath goes. Some people think, 'well the God of the old testament, under that Jewish dispensation, he had a seventh-day Sabbath but Jesus, the God of the new testament, he has a first-day Sabbath.' Please show me anywhere in the teachings of Jesus where he asks us to keep the first day as the Sabbath. There is nothing.
But you'll hear a lot of - and reading this week I ran into some of the other commentators - I was looking up some verses and these verses that talk about the Sabbath are so clear that some of the Sunday - famous Sunday commentators - who I respect, you know, a lot of what they say, but when they come to these verses they almost feel like they've got to stop and make a defense for Sunday and the only places they can point to is they say, 'well, eusebius, in the first century, he said that the Christians gathered on the first day of the week.' Well, they might have, but it doesn't say that they called it a Sabbath. And even if they did, it's not in the Bible, right? 'Oh, but it says that Jesus rose on the first day of the week.' Yeah, that's good. I'm thankful. But it doesn't say he now says keep this as the new Sabbath because there was nothing wrong with the seventh-day Sabbath. And they'll say, 'well, yeah, but it says something about taking up a collection on the first day of the week.
' That's in 1 Corinthians 16 - they did take a collection up on the first day of the week - not in church - it says it was in their homes - 'lay money aside that there be no gathering - collection when they gather together on the Sabbath.' The first of the week, when you get your books in order, set it aside. There's nothing in the new testament. There's not the shred, not even the hint of a command to keep the first day as the Sabbath. So these arguments that you hear quite frankly are desperate attempts to create circumstantial evidence. You don't want to create a new command from God that is going to overrule a written, spoken command from God with circumstantial ideas.
God would never do it that way. When God speaks with his voice to a nation and he writes it with his finger and he puts it in the holiest place of all - treats it with the holiest regard - if God was going to change one of those commands - and, especially when you consider he doesn't change the other nine - and he puts it in the middle of the law and he begins with the word 'remember' - if he's going to change that one then he really needs to have a megaphone in the Bible that says, 'keep the first day holy now and do not keep the seventh day.' But there's nothing like that, is there? And so, it's very dangerous for Bible Christians to put aside a command of God and say, 'it doesn't matter.' Or say, 'as long as it's a seventh day.' But does the Lord say a seventh day or does he say the seventh day? He's very clear - very specific about it. And so we'll get into this more in the lesson here. Okay, so this is Jesus - commanded - Jesus created the Sabbath day. Alright, 'Christ the Lord of the Sabbath.
' Now we're going to get into a specific incident that happened and, you know, I just wonder if maybe we ought to go to Matthew 12 and read this first. Somebody look up for me Deuteronomy 23:25. Who has that slip? Manjeet? Let's get you a microphone. Where's the mic? Hold your hand up so he sees you - and in the meantime, let's go to Matthew 12 and this is - this is a verse that deals with this incident that became a point of contention. Matthew 12, we'll start withverse 1, "at that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.
And his disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat." Now just, you know, when I first read this - maybe you all understand these things, but I grew up in New York city and we don't grow a lot of wheat there and so I didn't know and even when I - born in southern California, I never saw this so I didn't know how that worked. And so when I first read this in the Bible I said, 'what were they doing?' And when wheat browns and ripens in the field, you can eat it - even before it gets brown you can eat it and you just take it, you pop the heads off - you probably popped a foxtail off the grain before - you rub it in your hand and it separates the husk from the actual kernels of wheat, you blow - the husk and the chaff blows away, and then you throw the grains in your mouth and it's just eating raw wheat. But when you're hungry - when you're really hungry, even that starts to taste good. Now I do remember hitchhiking through some country one time when I was just hungry and my girlfriend and I pulled the corn out of the field and we broke it off and we just ate raw corn. Any of you ever just eat raw corn out of the field? As far as I know it didn't hurt me.
It tasted pretty good when you're hungry. They say it's safer to cook it and - but - so the disciples, they're just - it's not heavy labor, they're just popping off these grains. They're walking as they do it. They blow off the husk and they throw the kernels in their mouths. But some of the religious leaders were watching as they did this.
Let me finish reading here. When - verse 2 - "and when the pharisees" - this is Matthew 12, verse 2 - "and when the pharisees saw it, they said to him," - they must have just been tracking him all the time - spies watching him - "'look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!'" And Jesus answered and said, "have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: " - and that's in 1 Samuel 21:6 - "'how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless." - Jesus is saying what the apostles did and what David did, they are guiltless - "for the son of man is lord even of the Sabbath." Alright now, let's start with the example that Jesus gives - the teaching Jesus gives - talking about the grain. And manjeet, why don't you read that verse to us that's from Deuteronomy 23:25. "When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain.
" Did you ever see, in india, where they harvest with a sickle? I bet you did, yeah. How many of you - not too many of you remember because for the last 150 years we've had John deere tractors in North America, but you go to many parts of the world - you used to see it in ukraine a few years ago - they have these big - what was on the flag - the russian flag? It's a sickle. Because it was very common, you know, they had a handle up here, a holding place down here, a long, very, very sharp knife, and the men would go through and they'd go like this, and harvest the grain and the women would come afterward and they would collect and you have to use a sweeping motion because you do it all day long and it needs to be very natural. And the women would come through and others would come through and they'd gather them together and they'd take them and they'd beat the heads off it and eventually they'd separate the chaff with the winnowing fans and - and so you weren't allowed - let me back up. I want to read something else to you before I get to that.
Leviticus 23:22 - were they stealing this person's grain? Maybe it wasn't breaking the Sabbath, but were they stealing? Leviticus 23, verse 22, Moses said, "when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the Lord your God." Now as you go up and down a field and the tractors turn around - and even when they're scything they turn around and come back, you know, it's sort of a circular process when you're going up and - and sometimes the corners were the last thing you'd do because they kind of - the little pieces that you missed in the corner. Moses said, 'leave the corners. Let the poor have something they can eat. Don't completely shake every apple out of your tree or pick every grape off your vines, but leave something for the poor, especially by the roads by where they travel.
God said the Lord'll bless the rest of it if you do this.' So the disciples had every right, according to the law of Moses, to glean. They were walking as they were doing it. They weren't cutting the stuff down and putting it in a bag. That would have been different. And so they're just gleaning.
What they're doing is perfectly acceptable. They were not taking a sickle out. Were they breaking the law of God by doing this? Were they breaking the Sabbath? Anything wrong with eating on Sabbath? No. It should be a blessing. They weren't breaking the law of Moses.
They weren't breaking the Sabbath. What they were breaking is a man-made tradition. Didn't Jesus frequently say, 'you have a fine way of setting aside the commandments of God in order to observe your tradition?' And the Lord tells us 'in vain' - he says in Mark - 'in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.' And so there were a lot of man-made commandments that actually went against the commandments of God. All of the contention that Jesus had with them regarding the Sabbath - they accused him of Sabbath breaking. Did Jesus break the Sabbath? No, the Bible says Jesus said, 'I have kept my father's commandments.
' He didn't break the Sabbath. That would have been sin. Jesus never broke the Sabbath day. He broke their traditions of the Sabbath day. That's what that is talking about.
Alright, so - and then Jesus goes on - I just want to talk about the teachings of Christ on the Sabbath. Jesus gives two examples in Matthew 12. Remember he said, 'have you not read what David did?' Now how many of you remember the story that Jesus is referring to? David is running from king Saul and in running - he's running for his life. He has no food. He maybe has a few men with him because, at that point, he was a captain in the army of Saul and so David tells his men - he says, you know, 'wait here.
I'm going to go talk to the priest. And I went to the priest and he said, 'do you have a sword?' - 'I'm on urgent business.' And he said, 'well, the only sword we've got here is Goliath's sword.' David said, 'I'll take it. There's none like it. And, by the way, I probably should own that anyhow because I killed the giant.' And so he gives him - Goliath's got this great big long iron sword. So he takes it.
He says, 'do you have any food?' He says, 'sorry, we have no food. The only food we have is the showbread that was in the holy of holies that they would replace. And he said, 'you know, we could give you the old bread, but that's holy bread.' And he says, 'we're on urgent business. We're hungry.' And he said, 'well, that'll be okay.' And so they give David the bread. So Jesus is pointing back to that experience and he's saying - David was eating bread that, technically, was holy bread that was not to be eaten by the common people, but it was an emergency and he was on the king's business.
And so sometimes things are just practical. You can read a story where in - you know, I don't have the Scripture reference at my fingertips. Someone will have to find it and share it with me later, but when they were re-cleansing the temple and when they were doing the passover in the days of hezekiah, that the levites that were supposed to do it didn't have time to properly go through the cleansing to do it and he said, 'lord, forgive us because we weren't ready on the appropriate day.' And God said, you know, he would forgive them. Sometimes God was practical. And so, Jesus is saying they were hungry.
Feed them. And then Christ uses the example - he said, 'on the Sabbath day' - I was just talking to a friend yesterday about last week was a very busy week because as a pastor you're busy on Sabbath - we had something going Sabbath morning, Saturday night, Sunday there was a wedding - involved in the wedding. Sunday night had the radio program then go to Amazing Facts through the week and do your Amazing Facts and church work all week long. And I was telling him yesterday, I said, 'oh man, I could use a break.' He said, 'yeah, you guys you work pretty hard on Sabbath.' He said, 'for me, I'll be resting tomorrow, but you guys are busy.' Jesus said the priests profane - it's an interesting word that Jesus used - he said, 'the priests profane the Sabbath and yet are guiltless.' Now what did he mean by that? Work that they do - the priests - on the sacrifice there were twice as many - on the Sabbath day there were twice as many sacrifices and so the priests were busy. And some of the levites, they were keeping the fire going on the altar.
They were keeping fresh water coming for the laver. So when our deacons are taking care of the baptistry are they breaking the Sabbath on Sabbath? No. There's practical things that need to be done involved in the worship of God and Jesus said, 'don't condemn people that are doing these things' - now, I think there's unnecessary work that sometimes people try to squeeze in on the Sabbath that's not necessary. We ought to get everything out of the way that we can. If there's going to be a church fellowship dinner, set up the chairs, if you can, the day before, right? But what if you have another meeting after you have your fellowship dinner and you've got to move the chairs or the tables? You know, if it's part of a worship service, an evangelistic meeting, sometimes you have to do those things.
And so the pharisee will come along and say, 'you're doing that which is not lawful.' But Jesus is saying, 'you know, if it's involved in the worship of God and the priests are guiltless when they're doing these things. And those weren't just high priests, those were the levites as well. Anybody involved - that's appropriate. Does that make sense? Okay, so we've got to be practical about it. Alright, 'the example of Jesus' is our next section where we're talking about these things.
And somebody's going to look up Luke 6:6. Okay, jolyne. Let's get you a microphone. And I'm going to read - what's the example of Jesus? A Christian is a follower of Christ. What was Jesus' practice regarding the Sabbath day? "So he came to nazareth, where he had been brought up.
And he surprised everybody when out of nowhere he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath." I just wonder if anyone's reading along with me. I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't do that. I'm teasing. It actually says, "and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read." What is a custom? When it says he - he entered nazareth - now this means he's begun his public ministry when he got to his hometown he did as had been his custom growing up. He went into the synagogue and he participated in the worship and they asked him, as a visiting family member, to read from the Bible.
That was his custom. Going to church. Reading the Bible. That's a very simple loose translation. The practice of Jesus, every Sabbath day, was to go to church and read the Bible.
And we ought to be doing that too if this is what Jesus did. Alright, read for us Luke 6:6. "Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that he entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered." Okay. And we'll get to what happened with the man a little later when we talk about miracles of the Sabbath.
But don't miss the point. Here's another Sabbath. We read the first one, Luke 4 and here we are - Luke 6 - "...it happened on another Sabbath, also, that he entered the synagogue..." So was it a custom? And now you go to Luke 13:10, "now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath." Now if Luke, three times - and Luke is a jew or a gentile? Paul probably met Luke in macedonia when he was preaching among the gentiles. There's a good chance that Luke is a gentile and so here, three times, it says that this practice of Jesus was - he could have said 'he was following the Jewish custom of Sabbath keeping.' But, you know, everything that Luke says - and Luke wrote his book - how many of you know who Luke wrote to? The gospel of Luke in the book of acts, written by Luke, who was he writing to? Theophilus - oh man, I know it by heart. Now I can't say it.
Theophilus. Am I saying that right? He's writing to a Greek. And it would have been a good time - because Luke talks about a number of Jewish customs as he writes, but here he never says anything about the Sabbath, meaning that it was a self-evident truth to all of the believers that they kept this commandment. So he doesn't say, 'well, that was the Jewish Sabbath and, of course, we're keeping the Christian Sabbath.' He states it as a fact for all believers all through his writings. 'This was the practice of Jesus.
' And then you look at even the death of Christ. Luke 23, verse 56, "then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath day according to the Jewish tradition." Is that what he says? "They rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment." You go to Luke 24, verse 1, "now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women came to the tomb bringing the spices..." And the other gospels say 'when the Sabbath was passed.' Now we're talking here about the practice of Jesus and the example of Jesus - you're thinking, 'Pastor Doug, why did you put the example of Jesus in - why'd you put this verse in under 'the example of Jesus?' What did Jesus teach his disciples during the three and a half years that he was with them, regarding how he valued the Sabbath? Whatever he was teaching them, he certainly did not teach them, 'don't worry about the Sabbath day anymore.' Or 'this is a Jewish tradition, soon to pass away.' The disciples of Jesus were so careful about Sabbath observance, that even when it meant his body needed to be embalmed on the Sabbath day - Friday afternoon he died. They hurried - they went to pilate - they didn't want the bodies left on the cross during the Sabbath - especially since it was a high Sabbath being - during the passover - that the disciples did all they could and they said, 'we will not be able to finish embalming his body before the sun goes down. We will come back Sunday morning because the full three days will not have passed yet between Saturday - between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.
They figured that after a person died, if three 24-hour periods went by, decay had set in and you had to embalm them before that time. Remember when Lazarus was dead four days, Martha protested when Jesus said, 'roll away the stone' because she said, 'he'll stink. Decay will have set in.' But they could still finish embalming his body Sunday morning because between Friday night and Sunday morning you don't have three 24-hour periods. The three days and three nights that Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 12 is not talking about three days and nights in the tomb, it's talking about from the beginning of his suffering Thursday night and that's - anyway, that's a different study. But the Sabbath was so important to Jesus the disciples would not even finish their labor of love embalming him for fear of doing something they know would not please Jesus because by the example of Jesus, they saw he was very careful to observe the Sabbath.
Christ, on the Sabbath day, might heal people. He was a carpenter. Do you ever find Jesus making a chair or building a house or doing carpenter-like things on the Sabbath day? No. Does he ever tell Peter, James, and John, 'it's Sabbath. I don't want to eat the grain out of the fields.
Let's go fishing.' No, they don't do that, do they? You'd be surprised. There are probably some professed Sabbath keepers out there who find excuses to go fishing being at one with God and nature on the Sabbath day.' But Jesus didn't do that and so the disciples - the other thing to think about: Jesus completed his work of saving man on Friday afternoon. He said, 'it is finished.' As God finished creating man on the sixth day of the week Jesus said, 'it is finished.' He rested in the tomb all through the Sabbath. Jesus referred to death as a sleep. He rested in the tomb through the Sabbath.
He rose Sunday morning not to inaugurate it as a new Sabbath, but to begin his work for us as our high priest ascending to the presence of The Father. And so, you know, what happened with the example of Jesus with his death and his resurrection fortifies the truth of the Sabbath. It does not establish a different Sabbath. And so, yes he did appear to the disciples in the upper room on the first day of the week and he appeared many other times. He appeared to James.
He appeared to Peter. He appeared to two on the road to emmaus. He appeared to five hundred, Paul says, at another time. He appeared all different times. He appeared by the sea - remember when they went fishing in John 21? So the idea, because he appeared on certain days, it became a new Sabbath - you can't support that from the Bible because he appeared multiple times on multiple different days.
Alright, so the example of Jesus was that he had a high regard for the seventh-day Sabbath. Alright, 'miracles of Jesus' - miracles on the Sabbath. Someone - let me see here - you know what, I didn't give out a Scripture for this section, sorry. Tell you what, we'll just wing it. Does someone want to look up for me Mark 32, verse 34? You guys want to fight it out? Mike? Alright, we'll get you a microphone right here.
Where's the mic? They're passing it - look over your shoulder. I want Mark 1:32 through 34. We'll get ready for you in just a moment. I'm going to read Matthew 9:35, "then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues," - now what day of the week did he teach in the synagogue? Did we just read that? Every Sabbath he went to the synagogue. They didn't go to the synagogue every day.
They had work to do. Six days thou shalt work. "Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom," - by the way, Paul and the early apostles - what was their custom as they went out preaching and teaching? Paul, whenever he went to a new town he met with the jews first in the synagogues. As he went through asia there were Jewish settlements all through the roman empire. He went into the synagogues.
He preached to them first and then, if the jews believed, great. Some of them didn't believe then he'd preach to the gentiles on the Sabbath in the synagogues. And so, they were following the example of Jesus, going from town to town, visiting the synagogues, cities and country - we need a country work and a city work - notice that. He went to cities and villages, isn't that right? Countries and cities - "teaching in their synagogues, preaching" - is there a difference between teaching and preaching? Yeah. Teaching is a little more interactive.
Preaching is you're just kind of proclaiming and one side is speaking and one side's listening - "healing every sickness and every disease among the people." Some of that healing took place on the Sabbath day. Now they were taught - the Jewish people had been taught by the rabbis, 'do not go to the physician on Sabbath because he shouldn't have to work then.' That's work. And I will say, if a person is really ailing, should you go to the doctor or the emergency room on the Sabbath day? Of course you should. Are there certain medical treatments that you might receive that are elective and you can schedule them? Should you schedule them on Sabbath? No. And so, if it's not an emergency or causing great discomfort, don't do it on Sabbath, do it another day, right? Because not only will you be distracted from your regular worship on that day, but the others that are serving you don't have that benefit as well, whether or not they're Sabbath keepers, by your example and word you shouldn't, you know, force it.
So they believed that they should wait until the Sabbath was over to be healed. That's why you're going to read your next verse. Mike, go ahead. Mark 1:32. Mark 1, verses 32 through 34, "at evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed.
And the whole city was gathered together at the door. Then he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew him." Alright, you notice here - it says, 'at even when the sun did set.' So what did they do? They waited until the sun went down and then he began to heal them. They were afraid to come before that. So 'at even when the sun set' they had been programmed that way. Then if you look in Luke 4, verse 40, "when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various" - and this is, again, following the Sabbath - "when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on everyone of them and healed them.
" So Jesus respected this and in most cases he did not heal on Sabbath, why? Because it's always wrong or because he was trying not to cause a stir? He knew that it would just trouble his work. How many of you remember when he healed the man at the pool of bethesda? What day of the week was that? It was Sabbath - and he wanted him to just kind of 'take your healing and go quietly' but somebody saw him carrying his mat - it says, 'carrying his bed' - their beds were like a rolled up mat is all it was - and he was carrying his mat and they said, 'oh, you're doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath day.' Well, Jesus said you shouldn't condemn the guiltless. There was nothing wrong - the man had just been healed - he hadn't walked in 38 years and so if he's carrying his mat home, you know, you can see that they had misapplied these teachings on the Sabbath. And you look in John 5, verse , "for this reason the jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, 'my father has been working until now, and I have been working.
" Now the process of healing, .99% of the healing that happens has nothing to do with doctors. It has nothing to do with miracles. You are being healed all the time. Every time you skin your knee or you cut yourself or you bump yourself or you've got some kind of ailment, your body is fighting to heal all the time. Even on Sabbath is your body experiencing the healing process? And so, when Jesus says, 'my father is working.
' Jesus said, 'God is healing people, feeding people, listening to prayers. He is working all the time.' He says, 'I am coming to do the work of God in healing and so, if I heal a person radically or quickly or rapidly on the Sabbath day and my father heals them slowly through the - it's even Jesus - through the normal healing process, what's the difference? I'm just accelerating the miracle of healing on the Sabbath day.' So that's what he's saying, 'my father's been working until now and I have been working.' God is always supplying your needs. And then - let me give you one more. Luke 13:15, again talking about a healing, "the Lord then answered him and said," - there was a woman who was bent over years - she had not been able to straighten up and Jesus was about to heal her - and it's in the synagogue - and it was such a pitiful case and he thought, 'you know, I can't bear to make this lady wait until sundown to heal her, I'm here now. And he said, "'hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?'" Not all of the farmers back then had running water in their barns.
If they wanted to water their animals they had to haul the water to the animal or haul the animal to the water, right? You know, you've heard it said you can lead a horse to water - they used to lead the horse to where the water was - let him - isn't it easier rather than carrying bucket after bucket of water to a horse, just lead the horse to the water? So that's what they do. Their donkey, their horse, their ox - by the way, all unclean animals that are mentioned - or the ox isn't unclean, sorry - so it was the clean and the unclean is what I meant to say - and he said, 'if you would do that what's wrong with taking care of the practical needs of a human on the Sabbath day? You'll do it for an animal, how much more important is a human? Alright, 'the Sabbath after the resurrection.' Someone look up for me acts 13:42, who has that verse? We gave that slip to somebody - right here. Let's get you a microphone. Hold your hand up so - where's the mic? Pass it back. Okay? Alright, 'the Sabbath after the resurrection.
' So even after Jesus has ascended to heaven, what is the practice of those who listened to the teachings of Jesus? Our lesson is on the teachings of Jesus. Now we're going to look at what his immediate disciples believed about the Sabbath they'd been taught by Jesus. Acts 13:14, "but when they departed from perga, they came to antioch in pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down." - So now they're up in asia and they're going there doing the same thing Jesus did. Acts 16, verse 13, "and on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there." So even on the Sabbath day, Paul - he's not making tents - Paul is going and he's gathering together with the people, by the way, the gentiles worked on the Sabbath day, throughout the grecian/roman empire. I say grecian because they had a lot - they spoke Greek - it's the roman empire.
But Paul, he's not making tents on that day. He goes for a place - Sabbath's a good time to do Bible studies and he finds a place - the women all resorted down by the river - maybe some of them were washing clothes and he and, I think it was silas in this case, they're preaching to the women that are there. Alright, go ahead, read for us - who has - oh, you've got it - acts 13:42. "So when the jews went out of the synagogue, the gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." Thank you. Notice, it's not just the jews, the gentiles said, 'next' - when? How come they didn't say, 'next Sunday preach to us?' Wouldn't that - why didn't Paul say, 'well, you're gentiles.
The jews go Sabbath but I'm going to preach to you tomorrow, Sunday.' No, he accepted - this is the day of worship. This idea that Sunday is the Sabbath day really can't be supported by the new testament. And so, even after the resurrection - oh, and for me, a real slam-dunk Scripture is where Jesus is talking about his second coming and the time of trouble that's going to come on the world - Matthew 24:20 - speaking to believers everywhere, "pray that your flight" - he's not talking about on delta or united airlines, he's talking about fleeing for your life - "pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on the Sabbath." The day may come when you see persecution rising and those that be in Judea flee into the mountains. Some have said, 'well, the reason Jesus said that is because they would close the gates of the city on the Sabbath day and they didn't want to get locked into the city.' No, that's not true. In the days of Nehemiah they closed the gates of the city on the Sabbath day.
By the time of Christ, when the Romans occupied them, they did not close the gates of the city on the Sabbath day. So if you hear that, that is totally wrong - it's not true. And so Jesus is looking down in time assuming that his followers would still be Sabbath keepers. You wouldn't want to have to flee in the winter when there's no food available in the fields. You can't live off the land very well - it's cold and you don't want to flee on the Sabbath day when, obviously, it's not in keeping with rest.
And we should be praying now about that, Jesus said. That's what he said, 'pray that your flight is not in the winter or on the Sabbath.' So the teachings of Jesus regarding the future - did he anticipate his people would be keeping the Sabbath? And even in Revelation - the vision of John - 'I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.' Some have said, 'oh, that's Sunday. That's the Lord's day.' Really? Someone look up for me Exodus , verse 10 - who has that? Did I give that to anybody? I'm missing - oh! Over here - let's get a microphone to jennifer and I'll read Isaiah 58:13, "if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day," - what is the Lord's day? He calls the Sabbath 'my holy day.' Right? And you can see many places in the Bible where it refers to the Sabbath as a day - did man think up the Sabbath? Or did the Lord pick it? Didn't Jesus say The Son of man is lord of the Sabbath? So what is the Lord's day? Alright go ahead, jennifer, read that for us.' "But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God." So when John says, 'I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.' - I've heard some very interesting arguments that that was Sunday, but everything I find in the Bible about the Lord's day - he calls - if there is a particular day of the week that is his day, it's the Sabbath day, amen? Oh friends, there's a little more I could say about that, but we covered the bulk of the lesson. Hey, one more thing, if you don't mind, Sabbath school is a good time to talk about evangelism. We've got an evangelistic opportunity coming.
Don't forget that in a few weeks Amazing Facts is going to be broadcasting, nationally, a special prophecy program called 'landmarks of prophecy, coming to you from albuquerque, new Mexico and it will be on all around the country on 3abn and Amazing Facts television. Your church - your home can participate, just go to 'landmarksofprophecy.com' - you'll see the information there where you could do some evangelism in your church this fall. God bless. We look forward to studying with you again next week. Spanning the timeline of human history, God has provided prophetic landmarks signaling that his coming is near.
Are you ready for the next big leap in Bible prophecy? Join Pastor Doug Batchelor as he presents 'landmarks of prophecy' a live 20-part Bible series beginning October 31st from albuquerque, New Mexico. To learn more visit 'landmarksofprophecy.com.' Did you know that Noah was present at the birth of Abraham? Okay, maybe he wasn't in the room, but he was alive and probably telling stories about his floating zoo. From the creation of the world to the last day events of Revelation, 'Biblehistory.com' is a free resource where you can explore major Bible events and characters. Enhance your knowledge of the Bible and draw closer to God's word. Go deeper.
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