Enter Through the Narrow Door - Luke 13:22-30 - December 31, 2023

 Luke 13:22-30 Enter Through the Narrow Door

Good morning and Happy New Year! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 13. Today we are going to look at verses 22-30, and that’s on page 873 in the pew Bibles.

While you are turning there we’ll turn our attention to our catechism questions.

So now as we return to our study in the Gospel of Luke, I think that it is now coincidence that on this the day of the year that we are the most focused as a people on the time, the year that has gone and the year that is to come, it is no coincidence that the Lord has brought us to a text that very much has the same concern – time.

As we look at our text today we can speculate about the person asking Jesus a question and what their motivations might be, but what is much more important than the answer this person was trying to get from Jesus is the answer that Jesus actually gave.

So let’s look at our text together.

22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Let’s pray.

So in my imagination this person that steps up and asks Jesus the question, just sort of looks around and asks, “Is this it? I would have expected Messiah to draw a bigger crowd than this… Will those who are saved be this few?”

And of course, as He often did, Jesus uses this question to address a larger issue to the crowd at large.

22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door…

So the question is asked by an individual but His response is given to the group. And this parable that Jesus gives in response to the question focuses primarily on the Jewish people but has important personal application to everybody.

Jesus used two different words for those who would enter the Master’s house: Seek, and Strive.

The Greek word for strive is where we get our English word, agonize. It means to exercise great intensity and effort, to struggle, to fight to enter through the narrow door.

In contrast, the word, “seek,” means to try to do something without success.

The narrow door in this parable represents salvation, entrance into God’s eternal kingdom. The person in the crowd asks, “How many shall be saved?” But Jesus’ response shows that instead of asking how many shall be saved, we should all be asking, “Shall I be one of them?”

For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’

The Jewish people had accounted their relationship to Abraham as their invitation to enter God’s kingdom, that because they could rightly trace their lineage back to him that made them a citizen of heaven. 

These people ate and drank with Jesus outwardly but did not have inward communion with Him. He taught in their streets but they did not listen to His Word. They persevered in their unbelief and impenitence to the end.

JJ vanOosterzee wrote, “One may do much for his own salvation, and without success, if he omits the one thing that is needful.”

28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Warren Wiersbe said, “Jesus pictured the kingdom of God as a great feast, with the patriarchs and the prophets as honored guests. But many of the people who were invited waited too long to respond; and, when they arrived at the banquet hall, it was too late and the door was shut.”

Again, Jesus’ original audience was Jewish, and He was calling to account those who were counting on other things for their entrance into the feast such as their own ideas of inheritance due to their lineage, as well as those who were invited but for various reasons decided to wait to go but when they arrived found the door shut to them. They also would observe those from the east and west, north and south, at God’s table instead of them; these are Gentiles not children of Abraham. And the result is anguish and anger as they are locked out of God’s kingdom.

Again, the narrow door in this parable represents salvation, entrance into God’s eternal kingdom. The person in the crowd asks, “How many shall be saved?” But Jesus’ response shows that instead of asking how many shall be saved, we should all be asking, “Shall I be one of them?”

I think that is a question we all must wrestle with.

I would also pose the question, why would anybody wait?

The narrow way, the way of Christ, isn’t easy. Entering through the narrow door comes at a cost. 

Following Jesus means to admit that we are in fact sinners in need of saving, it means to submit our will to His, to let go of our pride and our false senses of security or goodness, to let go of the idea that we somehow deserve to enter into the Master’s house.

Striving to enter the narrow door does not mean that we work to earn our place or our salvation. As I already quoted our friend JJ vanOosterzee, “One may do much for his own salvation, and without success, if he omits the one thing that is needful.” And what is that one thing? Faith in Jesus Christ!

Ephesians 2:8-9 says,  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

So how can we strive for that which we receive as a gift?

Hebrews 3:12-14 says, 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

We must all be in a constant state of self-evaluation. Is there an evil, unbelieving heart, leading me away from the living God? Am I being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? Am I holding firm to my original confidence in Christ?

And for those that may think that time is on your side, that you will have time to get things right with God on your own schedule, once your done living your own way, once you get old, or tired of living fast and loose, once you have decided that it’s time to grow up: you don’t.

There is a time coming when the door will be shut. There is a time coming when it will be everlastingly too late to enter the Master’s house.

This thought should motivate us all to do everything we can to make sure that we have entered through that narrow door as well as invite as many people as we can to join us, for none of us know the day or the hour.

In Matthew’s record of these words he wrote, 13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Amen.

Can Anybody Tell Me What Christmas is All About? - December 24, 2023

 Can Anybody Tell Me What Christmas is All About?

Good morning and Merry Christmas!

Let’s pray.

I know that I have a bit of a reputation when it comes to Christmas, I’m not exactly the Grinch though I do think he made some good points. 

But I will admit to you, as it seems that I do every year, that I do struggle with Christmas.

I’m curious, I want to hear your favorite thing about Christmas… 

Every year it seems we experience the pressure of getting enough gifts or making enough gifts, and making sure that the gifts for the kids are roughly equal, making it to all the concerts, decorating the house, putting a fresh spin on the birth of Jesus for church, planning out the gatherings, and being in a million places at once. And I know that I am not the only one.

But I came across a wonderful thought this year that has really been helpful to me and quite freeing: It’s not supposed to be a burden.

Over the years I have struggled with finding the joy and peace that Christmas promises. In the past I have even put up pictures to remind myself that there’s supposed to be joy, don’t forget the joy!

The problem for me, and maybe for you I don’t know, is that the joy and peace I was looking for in Christmas aren’t found in Christmas, they’re found in Christ.

I still love the family gatherings, the presents around the tree, all the food, and the new pajamas, they may be fun and bring a measure of happiness but they do not offer lasting joy and certainly do not offer any sense of real peace. But in the midst of all of that Jesus still does.

1 John 1:1-3 says,

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

This passage from 1 John echoes the first chapter of the Gospel of John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God… 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it… 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

It is this Word made flesh, Jesus our Messiah, that we celebrate at Christmas time.

And while the world may pause to remember the baby born in Bethlehem in order to have joy and peace we must be sure to do more than just remember, more than just celebrate, we have to believe in Him.

In order to find any lasting joy and any real peace we have to believe in the Word made flesh.

Romans 15:13 says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Hope, Joy, and Peace are what three of our four Advent candles represent, all of which are not truly possible without faith in Jesus Christ. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

And I guess that’s the secret to finding real joy and peace at Christmastime, it’s not in the activity and the hustle and bustle, real joy and real peace are only found in believing in Jesus, the One born to die to set us free from our sin.

One of my favorite things about Christmas is “Charlie Brown’s Christmas.” Charlie Brown was struggling with the real meaning of Christmas in midst of all the commercialism and finally cries out, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is really all about?!” Then that great theologian Linus VanPelt answers him from Luke chapter two…

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

The Good News of great joy for all the people was that a way to have peace with God had been given: 

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, and the God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace in believing in Him, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Amen.

We are going to gather again tonight at 6 to remember our Saviors birth, to read the story, sing the songs, and light the candles, to celebrate through our simple traditions, and worship our humble King born in Bethlehem. 

Let’s pray.

It's the Little Things - Luke 13:18-21 - December 17, 2023

Luke 13:18-21 It’s the Little Things

Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 13, page 873 in the pew Bibles. This morning we are going to look at verses 18-21, two small parables with some pretty big implications.

Let’s jump right into the text.

Now, if you were with us last week you may remember that Jesus had just healed a crippled lady on the Sabbath in the synagogue. The synagogue ruler got all bent out of shape but was put to shame for his opposition to the kindness of Jesus showed to this poor woman who had been oppressed by a disabling spirit for eighteen years that caused her to be bent over and unable to stand up straight.

I remind you of that context because the verses we are going to look at this morning begin with the word, “therefore.” It’s poor Bible study practice if you begin your study with a “therefore,” and don’t examine what it’s there for.

18 He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” 20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

Let’s pray.

So here we have two small parables with some pretty big implications, the parable of the mustard seed and a parable about leaven, or yeast, hidden in three measures of flour. I think it’s no accident that these parables are both so short and yet have far reaching implications because that actually the point of both parables.

Unlike a lot of other parables, the disciples of Jesus didn’t ask for any explanation and I think that’s because they got the point and no further exposition was needed. But I am not going to make the assumption that we all get it because that would make for a much shorter sermon…

Let’s start with the mustard seed, what do we know about mustard seeds? They are really small. We actually don’t need to really know anything beyond that, that’s the part that matters, their smallness.

The mustard seed that Jesus was talking about was not where we get our yellow mustard from. Those seeds are from herbs in the Brassica family. (at least according to the internet!) 

The mustard tree that Jesus was talking about was most likely the Salvadora persica, which grows wild throughout the Middle East and Africa. These trees grow to a height of around 25 feet and have inch and a half to three inch long fleshy leaves. Not exactly a white pine but the point is that they grew into pretty big trees from a really tiny seed.

“What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”

Though we have to look up pictures of mustard seeds and trees on the internet, Jesus and His first hearers could very well have been looking right at one as they were commonplace in Israel. This was not a foreign picture to them like it might be to us. They would have known what these tiny seeds looked like and what big trees they would grow into.

But Jesus said that the kingdom of God is just like that. But in what way?

Small beginnings with big results.

Since it’s Christmas time let’s not ignore the fact that the Savior of the world came as a tiny baby, wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. Pretty humble beginnings for the Messiah, just a babe in the straw. 

Even being raised in Nazareth which was known for its lack of significance. Even Nathaniel, one of the Twelve disciples asked the question before he met Jesus, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

That nobody from nowhere chose twelve other nobodies and turned the world upside down. Even today, believer or not, Jesus is universally recognized as the most influential person in history. In Genesis 22:18 God promised Abraham that through his offspring all the nations of the world will be blessed. Jesus is that seed of Abraham and he has certainly blessed all the nations of the world.

The kingdom of God started small on the earth, but it also often starts small in the heart. We never know what small thing or series of things the Lord will use to draw people to Himself.

For me personally that tiny seed was a simple bedtime prayer my mom taught me: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray my Lord my soul to keep, watch and guard me through the night and wake me with the morning light.

The Lord used that prayer years later when in some of my darkest days I needed to see His light and he used that prayer to remind me of His great love for me and His desire to have a relationship with me.

But we never know what small thing, what act of kindness, what word fitly spoken the Lord will use.

Babysitting your grandkids and their friends so their moms can go shopping, inviting a friend to camp, or to youth group, praying with somebody that is hurting, investing time and energy to help somebody that needs development, any number of small things can become part of someone’s story of faith in Christ and membership in the kingdom of God.

Small things can have big implications. Alistair Begg said about this text, “The kingdom of God, though very small and apparently insignificant would eventually grow into cosmic proportions… We ought not to feel that our part in kingdom business however lowly and unseen will ever be insignificant… The influence of the kingdom comes from the King, not by man’s method or power.”

The second picture that Jesus uses is that of yeast, or leaven. We’ve talked about leaven here before, and many times it is used in the negative which has caused some scholars to warp the meaning of this passage to try and keep it consistent but Jesus doesn’t use it that way. 

20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

Is Jesus representing leaven to be bad there? No, He is representing it as pervasive and influential.

It takes just a small amount of leaven to have a huge effect on a large quantity of dough and once it’s in there’s no going back, there is no getting rid of it.

This is what the kingdom of God is like, small things having big effects. One little baby, twelve nobodies from nowhere, a word, a song, an act of kindness, an invitation, a simple prayer, can lead to a life renewed and revived.

You may have convinced yourself that nobody ever came to Christ because of a clean toilet, or a well plowed parking lot, but you don’t know that. 

We may never know what effects the small things that we do or have done might have on somebody else, even if it’s somebody we’ll never meet. We may be one of a million little influences that the Lord uses to bring people to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

So if I were to give you all one gift this Christmas it would be this simple reminder: you matter. 

The things you do and say, as well as the things you choose to not do or not say, have an effect on others. Those effects could be positive or negative but all can be used by the Father to draw people to Himself through faith in Jesus. You matter for the growth of the kingdom of God.

Don’t forget, the influence of the kingdom comes from her King.

The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:5-7,

5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Paul also wrote earlier in 1 Corinthians 1:28-31

…consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The kingdom of God starts small on the earth and in the heart, but it is also pervasive and influential both on the earth and in the heart.

Amen.

Who is Really Bound? - Luke 13:10-17 - December 10, 2023

 Luke 13:10-17 Who is Really Bound?

Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter thirteen, page 872 in the pew Bibles. Today we are going to look at verses 10-17 where Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath Day.

Let’s just jump straight in.

10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Let’s pray.

There is a very important guiding principle we must be sure to follow whenever we look to the Bible, whenever we consider God’s Word. That principle is simply: that the text can never mean what it never meant. It can never mean to modern readers what it never meant to its original audience. 

In the case of the Gospel of Luke it’s Theophilus and the First Century church. It cannot mean to us what it didn’t mean to them. We may very well apply that meaning in different ways than they did but the meaning remains the same.

This is an incredibly important principle to follow because without it we can go off on all kinds of bunny trails and make historical accounts into allegories and parables of our own making. When it comes to preaching and preparing sermons this is a constant temptation.

Here is an example right from our text.

Jesus symbolically enters into our world. He finds the symbolically crippled and marginalized, symbolically bent over by sin. He brings uprightness and people are symbolically straightened up and praise God for it.

Now are those things generally true? For the most part they are. 

Is that why Luke recorded this event in the Synagogue that day, is that the message that the original audience would have received? Probably not.

But just as importantly on the other side of the coin, is this account just about the fact that it was lawful for Jesus to heal on the Sabbath? No, there’s more to it than that.

First, there are a few things for us to recognize.

This particular lady had a, “disabling spirit,” as it says in verse 11, “for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.” 

So there are some health professionals here, was her kyphosis caused by osteoporosis or anklosingspondilitis? Neither. Her condition was caused by a disabling spirit. This was not a normal sickness, this was an unclean spirit at work in her body. But equally as important to recognize is the fact that not everybody that is sick is oppressed by the devil.

Your cough, your cold, your cancer, was not brought on by the devil or a demon. Sickness is certainly a result of the Fall, of the curse from Genesis three, and we are sometimes allowed by God to get sick, but we cannot blame every malady that we face as the devil trying to get us, rather, let’s glorify God through our difficulty.

That’s why this lady was afflicted, in order to glorify God.

12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.

This, of course is the appropriate response. It is also a great reminder that when the Father answers your prayers to thank Him and give Him the glory.

But this lady wasn’t the only one in the Synagogue that day that was sick. She had a spiritually induced spinal condition but the leaders of the Synagogue had a spiritually induced heart condition, hardness of heart.

This miracle performed by Jesus in their Synagogue, on a woman they knew with a condition that they would have been familiar with had absolutely no effect on them, it made no impression on their hardened hearts. 

14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”

Don’t you wonder what they would have said if they were all gathered there on a Tuesday morning instead? I wonder what foolishness they would have come out with then!

Jesus’ response to them is really important. He calls them hypocrites, a Greek word that means: one who pretends to be other than he really is.

This is important because though we tend to judge on the external, Jesus judges the heart, He can see within. So when He calls them hypocrites, it’s because He knows their hearts and their motivations behind what they did and said.

What was it that really made these men hypocrites?

They were attempting to shut the kingdom of heaven in peoples’ faces. They would neither enter themselves nor allow anyone else to enter, as Jesus said in Matthew 23:13 to the Scribes and Pharisees, and taking away the key of knowledge, not entering the kingdom and hindering those who would enter, as He said to the lawyers in Luke 11:52.

These people claimed to belong to God but did not want to see Him work, at least not in a way that would threaten their own man made kingdoms.

15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

It was lawful to untie your ox or donkey and lead them to water on the Sabbath Day, that didn’t violate the extrabiblical rules that had been passed down by the Pharisees. They would have each literally, “loosed the bonds,” of their animals for their own good that morning after only being bound for the night. Jesus contends that it was just as lawful to loose the bonds of this woman, their sister, after being held for eighteen years on the Sabbath Day.

In Matthew 12:10-12 Jesus dealt with this same question in a different Synagogue and His response was the same.

And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

These Synagogue rulers, as well as those Pharisees and Scribes in Matthew 12, are trying to limit the grace of God as if the exercise of His power on the Sabbath would somehow interrupt His favor on them.

It doesn’t make any sense at all, but their hardness of heart could not be reasoned with. 

On the surface it was this poor bent over lady that was bound, but, regardless of her physical condition, she recognized the Messiah, Jesus, and so was free. 

In truth it was the Synagogue rulers who were bound, blinded by their own sin, lost to their own traditions of building their own little kingdoms of power and influence.

As Warren Wiersbe said, “Satan puts people in bondage, but true freedom comes from trusting Christ.”

So what about us? If this is the meaning then what is the application?

Are we so busy trying to prove our own worth that we do not recognize the grace of God?

Are we actively, or perhaps unknowingly, attempting to limit the grace of God because we don’t think we need it, or that He wouldn’t possibly extend it to us?

Maybe you are like this poor woman, a happy recipient of God’s grace through Jesus. Praise the Lord!

Maybe you are like the Synagogue rulers, unhappy about how God is manifesting His grace in your midst despite your best efforts to stop it or get Him to do it differently, maybe with a method that you are more comfortable with.

This text, for sure, is a teaching on how it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, but more importantly it is a reminder that Jesus is our Sabbath and we can rest in Him.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Amen.