Luke 6: 1-11. The Law of Moses.

The hymn is under worship at the end now

Blue = Words from heaven

Orange = human interaction

Green = Saints speaking by the Holy Spirit

Brown = devils

Black = narrative.

On the next ‘Day of Rest’, He was in the fields of corn with His disciples who were picking it, rubbing it to get rid of the chaff, and then eating it. ²Some religious leaders said, 

“Why are you breaking the law of the Holy Day?”

³Jesus answered them, 

“Haven’t you read that when David and his friends were hungry, ⁴they went into the house of God, and David shared the bread set apart for God which was against the law for anyone to eat except the priests?”

 ⁵He then said to them,

The Son of Man IS the “Lord of the Holy Day”.

⁶Then again, on another ‘Holy Day’, He went into the worship centre and taught, and there was a man there who had a right hand that didn’t work. ⁷The religious leaders were watching Jesus in order to catch Him healing the man on the ‘Holy Day’, so that they could accuse Him of breaking the ‘Holy Day’ laws. ⁸Knowing what they were thinking, He said to the man, 

“Come and stand here in front of me”.

 ⁹Jesus continued, 

“I want to ask you something. Is it lawful on the ‘Holy Day’ to do good or evil? To save life or destroy it?” 

¹⁰He looked round at each of them in turn, and then said to the man with a sick hand, 

“Hold out your hand”.

He did so, and his hand became normal, just like his other hand. ¹¹These men became so angry that they asked each other what they could do to harm Jesus.  (End of Bible passage…)

 —-Summary

The Son of Man IS ALSO; The “Lord of the Holy Day”.

• Today’s Verse… Who is Jesus? 

The Son of Man IS the “Lord of the Holy Day”.

• Today’s Challenge

If Jesus’ Jewish disciples could make the sea change and believe what Jesus said about “The Sabbath”, can you? When Peter was tempted to go back to the law of Moses, God had to correct him in a vision, on the flat roof where he was staying, in Acts. 

Later God used Paul to remind him publicly at the council of Jerusalem, (Acts) about the New Covenant’s abandonment of the law of Moses – and how we access God. It was no longer obeying rules first in order to access God’s mercy. Peter did learn and went on to use Mark to write the gospel and only ever spoke badly about himself. It is John who tells us his good points!!! 

Paul worked feverishly to stop the new believers from putting themselves under the law of Moses. We are still under social laws, with each other, like “Do Not Murder”, etc. But regarding the religious laws, I once met a Christian who boasted he and his son had been circumcised. I immediately replied, “Paul tells us that if we put ourselves back under the law of Moses, it comes with the curse of the law”. He walked away. But I know that the Anglican church uses Old Covenant circumcision as an excuse for Christening babies, (which they incorrectly call ‘infant baptism’, which there is no such Biblical reason for doing.) The church then actually welcomes the baby into the family of God. Listen, it is not possible for us to DO anything of ourselves to enter God’s family, except to repent and ask God to forgive us in His mercy. It is only AFTER God’s grace is extended to us that we respond gratefully to obey Jesus’ commands of the New Covenant. If we knowingly and continuously, deliberately flout God’s New Covenant rules, Jesus says we can have our name removed from His Book of Life. Where does He say that? I wonder if anyone can email me to answer that! I did refer once to it! You will kick yourselves after you read the answer next week, as I’m sure you know the verse!

The important thing is to ask the Lord if there is He wants to say to you. For me as a christened Anglican it resulted in my taking believer’s baptism by immersion decades ago.

Prayer suggestions;-

1. The world. (ie ‘For those in authority.’)
2. The ‘suffering church.’ https://barnabasfund.org/nz/pray/daily-prayer/#previous-dates
3. Your own situation. (Suggest ‘needs’ rather than ‘wants’.)

“… He went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” Matthew 14:23. 

Jesus taught His disciples what we call ‘The Lord’s Prayer’; (Luke 11).

Listen here to Albert Malotte’s ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, 

thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread. 

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever;- Amen.

Jesus said, “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” Matthew 26:40, so we start our journey of giving God time to work in us, by praying along with this hymn… A New Commandment…