Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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There’s a false Christianity in the world that says that in order for God to accept you, you must live a certain way. It says that you need to dress a certain way. It says that you need to talk a certain way, using certain words, and not using other certain words. It says that you need to go to church, and give your money to the church, and follow all the rules of the church, and then God will accept you.

But that’s a false gospel. In fact, it doesn’t sound like gospel, like good news, at all.

Because if God will only accept me based on how I live, then I’m in a lot of trouble, because I can’t be perfect. Not even close. I’m not holy. I’m not selfless. I’m not the perfect father, husband, pastor, or Christian. All I can do I cry out to Jesus and say, “Forgive me, God, because I can’t be perfect.”

Now, being a Christian does cause us to live a certain way. It does influence the way we dress, and it does influence the way we talk, and it does cause us to come together as a church, and give to the church as the Lord directs each of us, but these are not the things which cause us to be accepted by God.

God accepts us because Jesus died on a cross for us, and gives us His grace.

You see, we cannot be perfect. But Jesus was perfect. And He is perfect.

But often Jesus did things that didn’t seem perfect to those who were watching Him. He talked with Samaritan women. He touched unclean sick people. He ate with sinners. He broke the rules!

But whose rules were they? They weren’t God’s rules. They were man’s rules. And if we want to follow Christ, we need to be willing to follow Him even when the world around us accuses us of breaking their rules. Because if Jesus is truly your Lord, then that means other things are not your lord.

The government is not your lord. Your parents are not your lord. Your friends are not your lord. Your school is not your lord. And, of course, while following Jesus doesn’t mean you will disobey all of these others all of the time, you will occasionally, or even often, need to make a choice regarding who you will glorify: God or man.

Read Luke 6:5-11

We saw last week how on a different Sabbath, Jesus and His disciples were walking through a grainfield. And as they walked, the disciples plucked some of the heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. And some Pharisees who saw them do this criticized them and called them lawbreakers. And the conclusion of the passage was where we started this morning: the Son of Man, Jesus, is lord of the Sabbath. This means that He could do what He wanted, when He wanted. He was and is Lord!

But that wasn’t good enough for the Pharisees. Their highest ideal was to not only obey the Word of God to the letter, but to go beyond the Word of God and create safeguards for themselves and for the Jews so that they might not even come close to disobeying God’s Word.

You know, we can learn a lot from the Pharisees. People today couldn’t care less about obeying God’s Word. But Jesus said, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out! And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off! We should go to great lengths in order to obey and glorify God.

But even in the process of doing that, we should never become legalistic about man-made rules. Jesus wasn’t interested in obeying man-made rules. The Pharisees believed it was law to not do a single act which might be construed as work on the Sabbath.

But Jesus gave us a new understanding of the Sabbath. It was for our rest. It was for our good. It wasn’t about simply refraining from all work, because that would be a work in itself, but it was about resting and recognizing that God will provide for us even on the one day per week when we aren’t actively working to meet our needs.

In fact, when you see the Sabbath like that, and even your life like that, your work becomes your rest. Jesus is the lord of the Sabbath, which means that He is the lord of the rest. It’s as if all He does, and all He rules over, is not work, but Sabbath. Rest. And those who live in Him get to rest in Him not just one day a week, but all of the time, because if Jesus is your Lord, then Jesus is your rest.

So even when the disciples plucked grain and ate it on the Sabbath, it wasn’t work. It was rest. It was seeing God’s provision, and God’s power, and seeing God at work, and enjoying Jesus.

But the Pharisees didn’t get it (v. 6-7). Even after Jesus had taught them that He was Lord of the Sabbath, the Pharisees didn’t get it. They wanted Jesus to refrain from anything that they or anyone might consider to be work. But Jesus wasn’t going to allow them to dictate how He would live.

So when Jesus had an opportunity to heal, He used it as an opportunity to teach (v. 8-9). So rather than point to His own authority this time, that He was the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus opened up the discussion about what’s appropriate behavior on the Sabbath for all of us.

The Pharisees were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they wanted to see Him working on the Sabbath, they wanted to see if Jesus broke the rules, but Jesus turned it around and asked them, “What do you think? Isn’t it right and good to do good?” And the Pharisees were speechless.

Why? Well, it’s because they were being just like all of us. You see, when we’re confronted with the truth about how we ought to live, our first response is rarely, “Wow! That’s right! I need to live like that! I want to do that because that’s how God created me and that’s what’s best for me!” We might get there eventually, but what’s usually our first response? Rebellion. We don’t want to change. We like what we do. We like who we are. And we’re told over and over again by society, “Don’t change for anyone.”

But one of the purposes of the Word of God is to be a mirror, so that we can truly see ourselves, and see our sin, and see that we need a Savior. And in seeing that, the Word of God also points us to the Savior: Jesus Christ. Although we cannot be perfect, Jesus is. He was perfect in just the way God wanted Him to be, in only the way that God could be. And it wasn’t even work for Him, but rest.

You see, Jesus was teaching us that our aim in life should not be merely to follow rules, but to do what’s right. To display the rightness and goodness of God. Jesus was appealing not merely to law, but to Himself.

This is important because there are a lot of things that we experience today that you can’t find mentioned in the Bible. Yet in each circumstance, we need to ask ourselves, and more importantly, to ask God, what is the right thing? What is the good thing? Which thing saves life? Which thing displays Jesus to the world around me?

But the Pharisees still didn’t get it (v. 11). Christ taught them about His authority. Christ taught them about doing good. But the Pharisees could not get past their own man-made rules. And so many people today struggle to truly repent of the rules they’ve constructed for themselves. Or perhaps that society has placed on them.

We desire to be rich. Or we desire to be well-liked. Or to be famous. Or to have a good job, and a good family. Or maybe just to live a quiet life, free from drama and free from controversy. But all of these goals are what society says we should have and want because they’re the things that make us happy, right?

But as Christians, we should be about following not man, and not our own ambitions, and not the world’s rules, but about following our Lord Jesus Christ, and not because we think we have to in order to please Him, but because through His own sacrifice for us, He’s already pleased with us, so that we can simply enjoy Him and rest in Him.

Ultimately, we need to trust not in our ability to follow rules, or even to do good, but in Christ. Jesus was the one who healed the man. And Jesus can heal each one of us. Place your faith in Jesus, and be healed.