Mike Bickle discusses Jesus' ministry, focusing on His deliberate actions during the Sabbath that challenged the religious norms of the time. He highlights the healing of a man at the pool of Bethesda and the subsequent controversy it sparked among the Jewish leaders, emphasizing that Jesus prioritized human need over rigid ceremonial laws. Bickle explains that Jesus' authority as the Lord of the Sabbath allows Him to redefine the purpose of the Sabbath, which is meant for man's benefit, not as a burden. The sermon illustrates how Jesus' compassion and mercy are central to His ministry, inviting all to experience healing and restoration. Ultimately, Bickle encourages believers to embrace the mercy of Christ and to understand that He desires wholeness for all.

And we're beginning in John chapter 5 where Jesus has just finished his tour, his first tour of Galilee. We looked at that in Luke 4 and Luke 5 last session. Now he's going back to Jerusalem for his second visit to the city of Jerusalem since he was anointed at his baptism. In John chapter 5 verse 1, after this there was a feast of the Jews. And Jesus went from Galilee, is the idea, up to Jerusalem. Now the idea is that most believe it's a Passover, although he doesn't identify this feast as a Passover, but it's the most common position that it is the Passover. Paragraph B. So he goes into Jerusalem and he's going to start a chain reaction of events. And he's going to do it on purpose. That he's going to heal somebody on the Sabbath and it's going to disturb all of the religious leadership of Jerusalem. Because Jesus is not going to honor their religious systems that they put in place related to the Sabbath that went above and beyond God's requirements in the Word. Because sometimes religious traditions and religious culture, sometimes if you're in it long enough, it seems the same as the Word of God. And after years and years and years, that's what happened in Jerusalem. Paragraph C. Jesus heals an infirm man, the pool of Bethesda, but he does it on the Sabbath is the point. Now verse 2, there is in Jerusalem a pool. It's called Bethesda. Verse 3, this is an unusual situation. It's created a whole lot of interest, this passage here, because there lay a great multitude of sick people around this pool. The blind, the lame, the paralyzed, they waited by the pool for an angel to come and stir the waters. When the angel just came randomly, nobody knew when. They would just wait eagerly, day after day. And when the angel of the Lord stirred the waters, the first one in was healed. Verse 5, a certain man was there who had an infirmity for 38 years. It's interesting, verse 6, Jesus saw him and he said this. I mean, this seems like an out of place question. Do you want to be healed? It's like 38 years, infirm? Well, what do you think? Of course I do. But Jesus doesn't ask any irrelevant questions. The sick man, he says, well, the idea is yes, but here's the reason I'm not healed. I don't have anybody to put me in the water when the water gets stirred up by the angel. Those other guys always jump in first. So Jesus heals him. Verse 8, he says, rise, rise up, because he was infirm, he had some kind of disability related to walking. But here was the storm. Take up your bed. Because to take up his bed on Sabbath is to work on the Sabbath. And Jesus understood that that's what the Jews decided was God's way. It wasn't God's way, but the Jews had made it that way for some long period of time. So he says it on purpose, take up your bed. It's going to create a big storm. Immediately, verse 9, the guy is made whole. He jumps up, it's amazing. He takes up his bed. He's probably not thinking that much about it. He's walking right through the city, and I mean, all the leaders that he passes, they're very upset. This is the Sabbath. You can't carry something on the Sabbath. That's work. You've got to honor God. And the guy's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, chill. I just got healed. It's been 38 years since I've walked. I mean, it's like amazing. Well, let's look at number one, paragraph, the question, do you want to be made well? Now, this question actually is an important part of the healing process. I mean, to some people, yes, for sure. But the sincere desire to be made well and the sincere desire to confront the issues related to whatever makes us not well, they go together. Now, one of the first steps in healing and in wholeness is the desire to be whole and to confront the issues that are hindering our wholeness, to really confront them. Now, some people, paragraph one, they find their identity in sickness. Not so many, but there are quite a few out there. I mean, the percentage isn't high, but they find their identity in being weak and needing sympathy. Or they find their identity in sickness, meaning if they're always sick, then they never have to attempt something they're afraid they're going to fail at because I'm sick. I would do it, but I'm sick. I can't. So they hide behind sickness. So they never have to rise up and face fearful things because they might not succeed in them. Now, I don't think the majority of the sick people, that's what's going on. But in this man's case, it was a little bit, it was more complicated because we're going to find in verse 14 that Jesus is going to identify their sin was in his life that was contributing to a sickness. Now, sin doesn't contribute, personal sin doesn't contribute to everybody's sickness. That's not a principle that though it's true on some cases, it's not true on every case. Every sick person isn't in sin and every person living in sin doesn't get sick. But sometimes it's related in this time it was. Paragraph three, the Sabbath. Now, keeping this, breaking the Sabbath was a capital offense. Breaking the Sabbath was not just an issue of, of, uh, being criticized in the church. If you didn't do things right, it was a legal criminal offense with the death penalty. You went to prison and you, then you got killed. So this was like a serious, serious issue in Jerusalem in that, in the first century. Now, one of the reasons they were so zealous about the Sabbath, well, they had wrong thinking to add so much more to the Sabbath law, the fourth commandment than God intended. But one of the reasons is because Israel went into Babylonian captivity 500 years before Christ. And one of the reasons is they didn't obey the Sabbath laws. So 500 years later, they'd been in captivity for 70 years in Babylon, about 500 BC, about now it's 500 years later. And they've built up this culture of absolute fanaticism about never, ever dishonoring the Sabbath, but they added so much to it. Now God's original intention in the Sabbath and the 10 commandments is the fourth commandment. Number three here, we're looking at paragraph three, is that people wouldn't work. And the real idea was mostly related to their occupation and learning a living. I mean, earning a living. They were, they were commanded to rest physically for their own well-being, but also to give them time to focus on the Lord as a family. It wasn't just a day of vacation, a day of recreation, but it was a day to draw back to rest. But it was also a day to make room for God in a really focused way. That was the idea. Rest your body and fill your soul. That's what the Sabbath was about in the most simplistic way. But paragraph B, the rabbinic tradition after 500 years of being so careful not to ever go into captivity again, I mean Babylon took thousands of them into prison camps, into work camps. They said, we're going to be so zealous, they piled up all these extra rules. And you'll see here in paragraph B, there were 39 categories of work that were forbidden. And one of the categories of work is you can't carry anything from here to there. Anything. You can't. Complete shutdown. That was one of the categories, but that's not what God meant when he gave the fourth commandment. Top of page two. Paragraph D, now Jesus gets to a real specific point. He says to this guy, verse 14, he finds the guy after the Pharisees are all stirred up and yelling at the guy and, why are you carrying it? He goes, that guy told me to, the guy that healed me. I don't even know who he is. I haven't been around. I've never even seen him before. So Jesus finds him afterwards. Verse 14, he says, Hey, for you specifically, sin no more, less a worse thing come upon you. So the clear indication that in this man's case, again, not every case, his sickness was related to his sin. And Jesus was saying, you don't want to get into that position again, because it will be worse. Verse 16. So now the Jews, they are so angry at him because he just like in their face, defied their interpretation of the Sabbath. And who's this upstart from out of town? Cause see, you know, he'd been to Jerusalem before and he disrupted all the tables in the temple. And they go, here's that guy again from Nazareth, that town on the other side of the tracks, you know, he's here again. What's the deal? And they were very angry. Verse 16, they would kill him. And then Jesus verse 17, he really changes the conversation. He shifts the conversation to a whole nother view of the Sabbath. He says in verse 17, he goes, my father has been working until now. And I'm working with him. In other words, the father is working on the Sabbath right now. And me and the father are so close. I'm doing his work on the Sabbath, but he's the one working on the Sabbath. He's the one you're not in agreement with. And they're going, what are you talking about? Verse 18. And they got really upset all the more. And they really want to kill him because he broke the Sabbath. But then he made God his father, therefore making himself equal to God. Now Jesus uses this occasion of the Sabbath break. It's the first big one. It happens in Jerusalem. Then we're going to see in a few moments, he's going to go up to Galilee. Remember, Galilee is up north and he's going to provoke a series of Sabbath day controversies. I mean, he's going to go to the Sabbath, heal a guy in front of everybody to stir up the conversation. But his first one's in Jerusalem, which is proper. He goes to Jerusalem first and gives them a chance to understand the new, the proper way they should view the Sabbath in his presence. Well Jesus used this occasion to describe his relationship with the father. Now they don't even know he has a unique relationship with God. But one of the sad things about this story is that the leaders were not moved at all that a man that's been unable to walk for 38 years is walking. I mean, that's like a big part of the story. No one cares about that. This carpenter from Nazareth broke their rules. Who cares that a guy paralyzed or infirm for 38 years is walking. So again, paragraph one, I've already made this point, but I just make it again that Jesus warned him not to see his healing as an opportunity to go send some more. Some people get blessed by God and they go, Hey, I guess if God's blessing me and he knows I'm doing something, but he's blessing me must be okay that I'm doing it. And Jesus saying, no, you got it wrong. I'm blessing you because I'm telling you I love you and I want you to come into agreement. It's to motivate you to repent, not to confirm that your sin is okay. Some people completely misinterpret the blessing of God when they're sinning God's wooing them out of their sin. And they're thinking, Hey, it's working. God's blessing me. I'm going to keep, keep on in my compromise. Again, the Bible is clear. I want you to see these verses specific sins if persisted in not always, but they can affect circumstances, check those verses out. Those three I have there. I mean, it's a, it's something you don't hear about much today. Most groups that really believe in healing, don't regard these biblical truths and people that aren't really into healing. They're really into you get sick if you said, but the truth is we believe in healing, but the principle that specific sin can cause sickness is still a dynamic truth in the Bible. It's a truth held in tension, but just unless you become one of Job's friends and you know, Job's friends thought Job was sending all the time and he wasn't. Jesus tells us in John nine, a couple chapters later, this one man, he goes, he's blind, but it had nothing to do with the sin. It's so that the glory of God to be manifest in his life. The paragraph two, this is a important part of the Sabbath controversy that it was known and understood by rabbis that God worked on the Sabbath. Now we know he created for six days and rested on the seventh, but to sustain the created order, if God quit working, the sun would go out. So the rabbi said, well, of course the creator and sustainer of the universe works every moment of every day. Yes. God works on the Sabbath. That's different. He sustains the universe. They understood he was always at work. And Jesus's point is, yes, the father's always working. That's why I am always working. And they're going, you are comparing yourself to the God of the universe who works on the Sabbath. Yes. Oh, they are so angry when he does this. Paragraph three, he goes, if God doesn't cease working on the Sabbath, why should I? Because I'm working with him. It's a, it's a veiled, but not so veiled declaration of his deity. They get it. They said, you're making yourself equal to God. You're declaring that you're working because God's working and it's one in the same. He goes, right. They are so upset. Paragraph E. Now Jesus wants to clarify that he doesn't have authority equal to the father. The father has greater authority. He wants to clarify that. Now the Bible makes it clear that Jesus in his essence is equally God. He's as much God as the father and the spirit. They're all equal in their deity, but they're different in their function and their authority within the fellowship of the Godhead. The father has the supreme authority. He's not more God than the son or the spirit, but within the fellowship of the Trinity, the father has the greater authority. So Jesus wants to clarify. He's going to say, no, no, I'm not equal to God in authority. You're not, you don't really understand how this works. I am fully dependent and fully submitted to my father, though I work with him in all things. Completely new idea to the Jews. Well, the whole human race, actually. Not just the Jewish leaders, but nobody has heard of such an idea. Verse 19, Jesus said the son could do nothing of himself. And what he's saying is that I'm not equal to my father in authority. I don't initiate anything. All the works that I do, it's his idea. He inspires me and I do what he's doing. I'm the visible expression of what the father wants. So if he wants that man healed on the Sabbath, I'll heal on the Sabbath. If he wants, you know, the universe to be ran, I'm participating with him in all things. Verse 20, he goes, let me tell you, I mean, these guys are really upset. He said, the father so loves me. Look at this verse 20. He tells me everything he's doing. They're looking at, you're a man, a lowly carpenter from a low from Lazarus. And you're telling us God likes you so much. He tells you everything he's doing so that you do it with him. He goes, yeah, that's what I'm telling you. He goes, let me take it up a notch. I don't just heal on the Sabbath because my father wants the healing to happen. He goes, it's going to go way beyond that. Verse 21, he says, you know, the Hebrew scriptures, the father raises the dead at the end of the age, but I'm going to raise the dead at the end of the age with my father way more than raising an infirm man in Jerusalem on the Sabbath. I'm going to raise all of the dead working with my father by my word. Verse 22, the father has entrusted all judgment to me. Every human being that's ever walked the earth will come under my evaluation. And if I think they've done right, according to the scripture, then they have, if I think they have not done right, then they have it. And of all the judgment of judgment, the evaluation of every human being that's ever been born is entrusted to me. I can interpret the Sabbath laws and how they should operate. I mean, they are so mad at him. They go, no matters ever talked this way. Of course, no man's ever had the authority to talk that way. Let's go to paragraph F. He goes, let's take it up a notch. Verse 25, he said, assuredly the hour is coming. Now it's on the last day with the second coming. That's what he means. The hour is coming. It's down the road, but he goes, it's not only future, you know, 2000 years plus down the road, but the hour now is. There's a present application to this future judgment. Raising of the dead. And he's talking about being born again, that a person can be raised from the dead right now, spiritually speaking, and receive new life and move from death to life. So he says, I assured you, verse 25, the hour's coming. And actually the down payment of it's working right now. My authority over the realm of death is what he's talking about. When the dead will hear my voice. Now he says the voice of the son of God, but they know he's talking about himself. And of course he is. He says in those that hear my voice that are dead will live. And if you will hear me now in your spiritual darkness and death, you can be born again and you can be alive right now by hearing my voice and believing me. And then on the last day, I'll raise your body from the dead physically. So you can be alive right now by hearing my voice and then brought to life on the last day. That means the second coming of Christ when he appears, that's called the last day. And I'll raise your physical body from the dead as well from, from the grave. I have that kind of authority. That's why I can tell this man in the Sabbath to rise and walk because I'm going to open up all the graves one day with my voice. Verse 28 he goes, let me be really clear an hour is coming. Everyone, all who are in the graves in the graves, you know, their body has decomposed, you know, some little dust, everyone through history down in the sea, you know, they got ate up by a fish and then the fish died. And a thousand years later, God's going to find their little decomposed little DNA, the bottom of the sea, everyone in the graves or anybody dead as the idea. Verse 27, eight, nine, they will come forth when I speak in that hour to all of created order, they will come forth at my word, those that have done good. And he goes on in John six, doing good means believing in him and committing to his leadership. Then goodness comes out of it. He's not talking about earning salvation. Doing good means recognizing the creator is the savior and he has free grace available. If we say yes to it and say yes to his leadership, he goes out of a resurrection of life. But the people that have done evil that have rejected my leadership and he's looking at those men and he know, they know he's talking about them. If they don't change, they're going to be raised, but it will be a resurrection of condemnation. They will be because on the last day, unbelievers get a physical body and then they go into the lake of fire with a physical body. Right now, unbelievers are in a holding pattern and they only have a spirit. They're physical, but they have a spirit man. They don't have a physical body. Their body's still in the grave. Just like a believers in heaven, their spirit person is there. They don't have a physical body, but on the last day, believers and unbelievers get a physical body. One goes to the lake of fire and one goes to the new Jerusalem. Well paragraph G I'm cutting short his whole message in John five, but it's his second visit to Jerusalem and I mean it created a storm. The first one, he knocked over all the tables. He cleansed the temple. He comes back many months later. The second one, he heals in the Sabbath and says, if God can work on the Sabbath, so can I, because me and the father are one. Oh man, it is just a storm is breaking out, but he's doing it strategically. He leaves town because he doesn't want it to come to a high pitch yet because he wants to sow the seed of the gospel of the kingdom in every village or nearly, you know, all the villages of Israel. And then when he's gone to all the villages and he's trained his disciples, he's going to go back in Jerusalem and stir it back up again, knowing they'll kill him when he comes. All he's got to do in Jerusalem is move in power and speak the truth and they'll kill it. So John six, verse one, after these things, Jesus now goes back up to Galilee by the sea. Capernaum is the city next to the sea of Galilee, where his home base was. Now he's big. He's going to begin his second tour of Galilee top of page three. Now in this second tour, we're only going to look at a little bit, the beginning of it. And we have three accounts of the same events. We got Matthew 12. It's which that's what we're going to stick with, uh, in this message. But Mark chapter two and three tell the same story, the same events as Matthew 12 and Luke six, they tell the same events. Each of the gospels at a point or two, but Matthew has an element or two more than the other one. So I'm going to, I'm going to use the Matthew 12 instead of go to Mark two and three or Luke six, but you'll see the notes you can move between. I mean, you agree with the same stories and you know, again, you'll find one extra little detail here and added verse there. And it's fascinating. I love to read them together and find out that other little part and go, Ooh, wow, that's, that's so good to put these two together. Okay. Paragraph B in Roman numeral two. Now he's going right up to Jerusalem. I mean to Galilee. First thing he's going to do, he's going to create a Sabbath controversy just like he did in Jerusalem. The story is spreading around everywhere. They didn't have Facebook back then, but the story is traveling fast. I mean, there's only one guy healing blind and paralyzed people and disturbing all the leadership in the city of Jerusalem. This carpenter for everybody's hearing the news. It's spreading very fast. I have paragraph B in Matthew. The opposition began when he first forgave the sins of the paralytic. He goes, your sins are forgiven. And they went, what? You can't forgive someone's sins. He goes, yeah, I can. Then it escalated when he ate with centers. When he, when he called Matthew, the tax collector, Levi, he called him and then they went to his house with all the tax gatherers and centers. And Jesus said, I love these guys. The Pharisees just, Oh, now it's going to explode because now he's going to go beyond forgiving and hanging out with centers. Now he's going to work on the Sabbath. Well, he's not really working. He's speaking a word and the healing power, but it's going to provoke the Pharisees because he wants the issue to come to the surface because there's an important message in the issue. As long as the issue is buried and non-addressed, there's significant part of his message is not being made clear. Okay. Let's look at paragraph D. So here's, I have paragraph D here, the disciples, they are going to pick grain on the Sabbath, but I have in the next sentence, Jesus has had three Sabbath confrontations in a row. The first one in Jerusalem, now two of them up in Galilee is going to have two in a row. They're both of them in Matthew 12, or you can read them both in Luke six or Mark two and three. Again, we're going to choose the, we're going to go with the Matthew 12 because there's a few little points I want to pull out paragraph of verse one, Matthew 12. At this time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath because the disciples were hungry. They begin to pluck heads of grain. And it says in Luke six, they rub it with their hands to grind it, you know, get it ready. And they ate it. And the rubbing it with their hands was considered reaping. It was considered working, reaping the harvest. You can't do that. You can't reap the harvest, even though, you know, that's kind of, that's a big stretch, but that was one of the 39 categories. Now, one of the laws from Moses's day in Deuteronomy chapter 23, is if you were walking by somebody's corn field, you couldn't take any with you, but you could stop and eat your fill. It was kind of like the generosity welfare system of the day. You couldn't live there. You couldn't camp out on their corn field, but you could take what you needed in the corners. And they, and there was one of the laws of the land, this generosity built into the legal code. So the picking of the grain and eating, it wasn't a problem. That was legal actually, because he could only take so much in one setting, but it was the fact he did it on the Sabbath. So verse two, the Pharisees saw it and they said, verse two, look at your disciples. They're dishonoring the word of God. Look at that. They're reaping on the Sabbath. And Jesus could easily say, number one, that's not work. That's not reaping. That's one of your rules you put in over the last couple of hundred years. Now, I appreciate your zeal to honor the word of God, but it's gone beyond that. You've made a whole bunch of rules that it, it plays into your own hand because you being the authorities over the rules, it's not just zeal for God. It's your power base in the society as well, because now you're the power brokers. You're the one that can put somebody in jail. If they break those laws, you, it's your whole power base institution is what's going on here. And Jesus is addressing that really as well. It's not, they were so zealous for God. If they were zealous for God, they would have accepted Jesus. No, he was messing with their economics, their power base and their religious traditions that were all mixed together. And they couldn't even separate which was about power, which was about money and which was about religious tradition. They were all merged together, but all of them were a part of these laws because the, there was money involved in these and power involved in these that were related to the Pharisees. Jesus said, okay, you think my guys are breaking the word of God? He goes, okay, you bring up the word of God. Verse three, let's talk about the word of God. How about the time David, he went when he was hungry, just like my guys were. He went into the house of God, the temple in the city of Nub. He ate the showbread because it wasn't lawful for, for somebody to eat the showbread unless they were priests. It was a ceremonial rule, but he ate it anyway. And there was no condemnation against him. He goes, so you are saying my disciples are breaking the word of God. I'll use the word of God. How come David's not condemned for eating that bread that, that, uh, a religious law said he couldn't a ceremonial law, but he ate it anyway. It's a well-known story in first Samuel 21. They kind of got silent. Jesus gave them another story too, which I'm not going to go into. I have some of the notes on it. Verse six, Jesus says, I want to tell you something that in this place, there is one greater than the temple and one greater than the Sabbath right in front of you. And they're looking at him out in the grain field and go, what, something greater than the temple. So let's look at this passage. Just take a few moments on a paragraph to Jesus appealed to the situation with David that I've just described David and a group of guys. They went to the temple at the city of knob at that time, and they ate bread consecrated bread means it was dedicated. Only the priest could eat it under certain conditions. The scripture didn't condemn David. And Jesus is saying, since you are so zealous for the word, why didn't the scripture condemning? He broke the word. I'm using the Bible right now, guys. And they're kind of their eyes get big. He goes, well, let me tell you why now he didn't lay it all out here, but here's the reason David was the anointed king of Israel and the fallen reprobate king of Israel was using the power of the state to try to kill David. The anointed of the Lord was being pursued by a state sanctioned military directive against him to kill him. And he ran into the place. He was starving. It was an issue of life and death for him. And he asked for food. He goes, and whenever life and death is in the balance, the ceremonial laws are secondary. The ceremony is not talking about the moral law. He's talking about the ceremonial laws. And David was the Lord's anointed, not just an anointed, like we are all the Lord's anointed millions of us. No, he was the singular anointed person. The king of Israel was only one at a time. And he was in the line of the Messiah, very unique position. And he was being attacked by the power of the state to kill. And he was really hungry and needed food. And he was in flight. And what he's really saying, the end of paragraph two, David was being rejected by an evil leadership and me, his greater son, the greater David, I am being rejected by the evil leadership of Israel. It's a parallel. Can't you see what's happening? But not only that, he's going to go on in a few moments. I'm getting ahead of myself. He's going to say, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I'm far greater than David. I'm greater than the temple. I'm far greater than the temple and far greater than David. And I have full authority, full authority to interpret Sabbath laws because they came from me. They're under my stewardship and under my authority. I am God. And this is, this is tough. They're looking at this 30 year old young guy that's from Nazareth, no education, no resume, no anything going. What are you talking about? These guys are highly educated. They're all double, triple PhDs. And they know the Bible back and forward, all the languages. Paragraph three, the issue to the Pharisees was the religious, was the law, the Sabbath application, the Sabbath laws, how to apply them. Jesus goes, that's not the issue. He goes, I'm not talking about applying it because I just told you David could because he was the anointed of the Lord and he was in a life and death situation. It's only a ceremonial law, but he goes, I got something. It's a shocking statement. I mean, it's a shocking statement, something, someone greater than the temple is right in front of you because the temple was the only place on planet earth where the manifest presence of God was. The only place on the earth, the Jerusalem temple had it at a time, the manifest glory, the Shekinah glory in the Holy of Holies, the only place on planet earth. That's why it was so revered and so special and so amazing. Jesus says, I am the carrier of the presence of God, far beyond that stone temple in Jerusalem. I'm vastly superior. It's the most remarkable statement. So he's taking it out of a debate about the technicalities of what is really work. Can you carry it? How far can you carry it? How much can you weigh and still carry it? Can you have something in your pocket? If it's not very heavy, is that still work? They debated all those. Jesus said, you've got completely the wrong conversation. I am greater than the temple and I'm in front of you. You're Messiah, you're King, you're God, and I have full authority over the Sabbath. Paragraph eight, he goes on to say, if you had known what it means that I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you wouldn't have condemned these disciples that are following me. You've condemned them. Now, this is very interesting because Jesus quotes this passage from Hosea chapter six, verse six. He's up in Galilee, but just a few months earlier in the same area, he quoted the same verse in Matthew chapter nine. We talked about it in our last session. Look at here in the notes, Matthew nine. He said, when Matthew, the tax collector was called by Jesus, come follow me. Come be one on my team. Matthew got so excited. He had a big party, invited all the tax collectors and all the Pharisees got mad. And that's when Jesus said, I didn't come to call the righteous. I came to call sinners, you know, all of that. But Matthew added, and Jesus said, look at, look at Matthew chapter nine, verse 13. This is from last week, our last session, go and learn. I desire mercy. Now, Matthew wrote that about his own party and his own calling. You know, Mark and Luke didn't put that verse in. Like I said last time, when Matthew's in heaven with those guys going, Hey, Mark, Luke, why didn't you put, that was my favorite sentence of the whole evening. When Jesus said, I desire mercy, go learn it. I am the embodiment of a man who needs mercy. So here it is a few months later, Jesus is in the very same area in Galilee. Let's go back up to chapter 12 or seven. It's a few months later. It goes, if you really would have learned what I told you a few months ago, and of course the word was spread around everywhere that verse in Hosea six, six, I want you to learn mercy. I'm a God of mercy, not of God of these rigid man-made laws that condemn people because see condemnation condemning people. Jesus is so has so much energy about this because it destroys human life. Condemnation. Now in Israel, it was, let's talk about us for a minute. I'm gonna talk about Israel. The power of condemnation is it destroys hearts, destroys relationships. You could use the word accusation. If you want, you could use the word criticism. If you want, if you really want to get like really intense, you could use the word whispering about one another. They are all exactly the same thing. Jesus said, I don't want that because that spirit of condemnation, criticism, condemnation, use the words you want. It breaks lives. It breaks relationships. It breaks hearts. I'm a God that wants people to look at each other through the lens of mercy, the way I look at them. I want them to enjoy the mercy I give them and not repel it with some religious spirit, but receive it with confidence. But I want them to give it to other people and not receive the mercy, but then judge other people. I want mercy to be the very center of my kingdom. Now again, mercy isn't a throwing away of God's ways. The mercy is extended when somebody breaks God's ways and they say to the Lord, Lord, I, I failed and I, I want forgiveness. I want you to cover me. I want you to give me a second chance. So mercy isn't like, you know, boys will be boys and just let them do what they want and have mercy. That's not what mercy is. Mercy is extended to the people who are saying, I blew it. I came up short. God, give me another chance. I'm sincere, that's when mercy triumphs over judgment. But he said at Matthew's party, I proclaim this now it's a few months later. Now I'm in the grain field and you're judging again and your, your judgments, they break lives of the people under you. Now that's how judgment works socially and relationally, but in Israel, it was more than social and relational. That's how I've just described it. Like in the church in Israel, it was social relational, but it was also legal and criminal. If you were condemned for breaking the law, I mean, it was about being stoned or going to prison. So it was more than just condemned. It was condemned way beyond, but the condemnation still is real without even the legal overtones of it in the kingdom of God, just in normal society, top of page four. Now, Mark talking on the same passage, describing the exact same event in Mark two, he's describing the same event of Matthew 12. He adds these two, he makes these two big statements, verse 27, Mark chapter two, verse 27. You could put this right into Matthew 12 where we've been reading. And Mark says, it's so clear. Number one principle, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. God created religious ceremonies and things like the Sabbath, because the Sabbath was, was not like murder or adultery. It was, you know, honoring an institution and an ordinance in the culture. It was so that man could be strengthened, that man could be rested and that man would have time to interact with God. It was all about building man up. It wasn't to create all these rules to crush man. But number two, he looked at them and said, the son of man, me, I'm greater than the temple. I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I am the authoritative interpreter of the Sabbath because I'm the one that spoke the word about the Sabbath to Moses, because I spoke to Moses. I'm before Moses. I'm before Abraham. They spoke of me and I'm the one that appeared on various occasions to the patriarchs. Go to middle of page four, Roman number three. Now let's go to the next Sabbath thing. So a couple of days or a little bit of time passes. Now he had a Sabbath controversy in Jerusalem back in John five. Then he went up to Galilee in the grain field. He picked it and he knew he was stirring up the Pharisees. He knew it because he has a message he wants to make clear. So now right after that is going to be the third Sabbath controversy and he's got a few more he's going to stir up. He does them on purpose. Paragraph A, he's using the Sabbath controversies to emphasize a message. The message is the point I just got through making in Mark 2 that the Sabbath is made for man and Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. Here's his message. Human need is more important than ceremonial laws. We all know that. But we end up even in our own, we call it spiritual culture, religious culture. We have things that we, every religious culture, every spiritual group has different ones. Ones that get embedded in the culture over decades that become more important than people. And it's real easy for fallen human beings to do that. Even those that love God. He says, these external laws can't be more important than the people. If they crush the people, what's the point of the law, but to help the people of these, of these rules. But the next point Jesus wants to make, he is the authoritative interpreter of the Sabbath. That was a brand new point. He goes, I want to push that point because I can't change who I am. I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I always have been. I always will be. And you're telling the Lord of the Sabbath, I work with my father and he never ceases to work. We both work together in unity on the Sabbath. And I interpret the Sabbath laws and you have to relate to me on my terms, or you can't relate to me because I'm not changing. You have to change. Now this is a message to Israel, but this same Jesus is talking to the church in the same way. Like even in our culture today, there's all kinds of truths that are being up for debate and different issues being set aside. And Jesus saying, no, I don't change. You have to relate to me based on who I am. I am the Lord, the head of the church, the head of Israel, the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord of all creation, the judge of all people. I am that person. I am not just a theological concept that you can get together and have a little debate about and dismiss a part of me. Just like in Israel. It's the same today in a generation where apostasy is growing and people are loose, very loose with who Jesus is. Almost like they can move the boundary lines because they haven't had any kind of regular fresh encounter with him. They lose sight who he is and they think it's about theological arguments and debates and political correctness and all these things. There's a man who's fully man and fully God who has all authority, who is the judge of all who we must relate to on his terms. He's filled with love, but love on his terms, not love defined by the culture, love defined by the kingdom, by his realm, by his authority. So this isn't just a historic lesson far away. It's for today. We don't, we're not all troubled by the Sabbath in the same way we were, but we're the boundary lines of who he is are being moved around by people that historically have been devout in the church and those that haven't been so devout. But paragraph B, he's going to now move on to the third Sabbath controversy. The first one in Jerusalem, the second one in the grain field, and now he's in, he's in a synagogue. Matthew 12, again, you could read it in Mark three, you could read it in Luke six or all the same. It's the same story. Verse nine, he departed from there. That's the grain field. Then he went into the synagogue. Now they got his number because he was in the grain field and they talked to him. He goes, now he goes to the congregation. They go, okay, you're that guy that was over there. We know about you. Verse 10, there was a man, he had a withered hand. So they, in the synagogue meeting, they look at him and they take the initiative. They ask him, can you heal on the Sabbath? Is that okay with God? They were looking for him to say yes, so they could accuse him. But again, not just to criticize him, to actually bring him to the courts as a criminal with the idea that to kill him. Accusing here is way more than just social and relational. It's criminal. He said, well, let me, let me ask, answer your question with a question. What man is there among you? If you have one sheep, he falls into a pit. He won't take him out of the pit. They go, well, of course we'd take him out of the pit. He goes, well then, how much more is he valuable as a human being than a sheep? And even, he's even pressing the point, it's a poor man that only has one sheep. So he doesn't have like a whole flock and he loses one and waits for the Sabbath to be over and hopefully the sheep doesn't die. He goes, that's his only one. It's his whole livelihood. They go, well, of course we would go down in the pit and get him. Jesus is saying, can you see the contradiction of what you're doing here? This man has got a withered hand and how good would that be for him to be freed? Paragraph five, bottom of the page. Mark adds, Jesus was angry and grieved. This wasn't small to him. Not because they were going to eventually, this would escalate and they would kill him. He came in order to die for our sin. He's not trying to avoid dying. He's avoiding the problem escalating before it's time. Because he wants time again to sow the word in every village all throughout Israel before he goes to Jerusalem to die. He's grieved that the spiritual leadership is more fixated on their ceremonies and their rituals that again, that embolden and reinforce their power base in society. And undoubtedly there's economic advantages for them in it. And they will bring people under judgment, not just legal judgment, that too, and destroy their lives, but even social stigma and judgment that the leaders have pronounced those people as bad as sinners because they're not keeping the rituals that God's not even behind because you're breaking lives. Because you're using your authority, your influence. It's not just elders in the church, it's leaders, kingdom leaders in the marketplace, in the school systems, wherever you are in the kingdom, whatever assignment you have authority, we don't want to use our authority to like grind people down a little bit to let them know we're the ones in power. Happens all the time in the church. I don't mean just in the church buildings. I mean all through guys and gals in the office, in the school systems, education, military, they use their role to prove their authority and they use the rules to do it. And Jesus is saying that's not the way we do it. Yes, we uphold certain standards and guidelines and rules, but always with people in view, not crushing them. Top of page five. It's the last two to three minutes here. Now we're still back in Matthew 12. Matthew 12 is amazing. Again, it's Luke 3, I mean Luke 6 and Mark 3 as well there. It's all the same things. Verse 15. When Jesus knew it that the controversy was mounting up, they were gonna really bring it to a head. Jesus goes, no, no, I still got a couple years. I can't, no, I'm not done. So he withdrew. But a great multitude followed him and he healed every one of them. Now look at paragraph one. Mark tells us, Mark 3, because remember Mark 3 and Matthew 12 are the same story, describes the multitude. Look at the seven locations where people gather. Now remember, they don't have buses or trains or cars. They're coming from Tyre and Sidon and far away places. And they're Gentiles, not just Jews. These are the Gentiles coming into Israel to interface with Israel's Messiah. There are so many people gathering. Verse 9 of Mark 3. Jesus said, get me a little boat and get ready for me to go stand in the boat lest the people crush me. They so want to touch me so bad. There's so many thousands of them. He's healing all of them. That's one of the grand statements. He healed them all. What a glorious statement about the nature and desire of Jesus to heal hearts. Now paragraph B, verse 17. When he healed them all, number one, when he withdrew from the conflict of the Pharisees, number two, and when all the Gentiles from other regions pressed in, number three, Matthew said all of those components are actually prophesied in Isaiah 42. He goes, this man, Jesus, is actually, his character and his responses are so in line with the Messiah as described in Isaiah 42 verses 1 to 4. And that's what Matthew 12, Matthew says. It's so remarkable. I have to pull out that Isaiah 42 passage about the Messiah. And here it is. Verse 17. That it might be fulfilled which is spoken to the Messiah, I mean by Isaiah. Behold my servant, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. He will declare justice to Gentiles. That means to the nations, not just Israel, to all the earth. I mean the Gentiles, remember they were enemies of Israel and they were pagans. They were worshiping demons and idol worshipers. Gentiles, whoa, like you don't give justice to Gentiles. You destroy them and remove them is what Israel thought. Justice to, are you kidding, to the bad people? Verse 19, very important verse, surprising them. He says the Messiah won't quarrel nor cry out. You won't hear his voice in the street. It's a very over, much overlooked description of the Messiah by Israel in that time because they wanted a Messiah who would confront Rome, raise up a military revolution, drive Rome off, you know, out of the nation by military force and power. But Isaiah said no. When the Messiah comes the first time, he's not going to raise his voice and have a revolution. He's not going to do it. Matter of fact, when he's resisted, he's not going to back down from what he believes, but he's not going to use his power to destroy his enemies because he could have looked at those Pharisees and spoke a word and their life would have left them in one moment, their breath. He had the power to look at the Pharisees, boom, one word, just like he raised the dead. He could put them in the grave and he never did it, but he drew back in patience and meekness and let them prevail. Verse 20, he's so merciful that a bruised reed, he won't break a smoking flax or a smoldering wick is how almost every translation says. He won't quench till he leads justice to victory. And in his name, the Gentiles of trust what it's saying here. And I'll just leave the notes for you to read. They were Israel was looking for the wrong kind of Messiah. They were looking for the Messiah at the second coming. They were looking for the triumphant King that would overthrow and overpower all the enemies by his word. That is the Messiah second coming. They were not looking for a Messiah that would be kind and humble and friendly to Gentiles. Number one, like, are you kidding? There are enemies and they're pagans and they're evil. You don't give them justice. You give them destruction is what you do. You don't help them. You destroy them. Jesus goes, no, that's not what I do. But this verse 19, he wouldn't raise his voice in the street. Doesn't mean he didn't preach in the street. That's not what he's saying. He's not going to go. They wanted to make him king. John 6, 15. They said, will you be our king? He goes, no, no, no. And the zealots came in. Hey, would you be the king? We'll follow you with arms and so, you know, with, with swords and spears. And no, he would not raise his voice to create a revolution or a movement to oppose Israel and their leadership or Rome. He said, no, I'm not doing it that way. I'll let Israel's leadership kill me and I won't confront Rome because I'm coming to die and I'm going to live in humility and show kindness in my first coming. Verse 20. Now, this is real personal to you and me. A bruised reed he won't break and a smoldering wick. I'm going to use the, the translation that's normally used. He won't quench. He looks at lives. Think of, you know, I remember I was, as a boy, you know, we'd play ball and then we'd, the ball would go in the neighbor's. I did this a couple of times. Went in the neighbor's yard and it broke the tomato plant. The Bickle boys did it again. So I had to go over. I didn't confess. I broke the tomato plant, but my ball was there. So I sneak over there and the lady goes, you little Bickle boy, I told you to stay out of my garden. And the tomato plant is broke. You know, I tried to put it up and put like some tape around it. Worthless. Get out of here. I'll tape it up for you, lady. I did it a couple of times. That's why she's annoyed at me. She said she needed to move her yard. She thought I needed to move my game. Anyway, a bruised reed is the tomato plant. No tape is going to fix it. Jesus said, you're at the breaking point. You're so broken. I'm not going to break you though. I'm going to restore you. That's the tenderness I have even towards my enemies. I'm actually going to restore them if they will say yes to my leadership. In a smoldering wick, that's the candle. It's right at the very end. It's like, ah, we need the light. No, don't go out. It's flickering. Please don't go out. Oh, no, no, I shouldn't have blown on it. It just went out. That little flickering wick. I did that a couple of times as a boy. Jesus said, when the light is burning so low, I won't quench it. I'll go the other way. I will move by my spirit until I bring justice. Justice means making wrong things right. I'm going to restore until there's victory. I'm going to have victory in the life of my people. I'm going to have victory in the nations. My leadership is going to bring victory and justice to all the nations of the earth that will say yes to me at my coming. He's going to fill the earth with his glory, but he's going to work victory in our life in this age and bring it to fullness in the age to come. And that's who the Messiah is. But Israel wasn't looking for that kind of Messiah. They were looking for a conquering king. Well, I'm going to tell you, Alex, I'm going to tell you completely something kind of on the subject. I'm going to take two more minutes. I had the most amazing conversation the other day. I just thought of it when I thought he's going to bring justice to victory. I just remember this is not part of this Bible study, but I talked to this lady, most amazing conversation I've ever had with a person just like this. It was the other day. She's in her eighties and she's dying. And she wanted me to call her. And I've known her for 35 years. And I'm on the phone. And I said, just the other night after our solemn assembly, after money died, I went out in the parking lot and just talk, call her on the phone and said, Hey, it's Mike. She goes, Mike, I'm shocked. I go, what? I'm shocked. What? Death and dying is unbelievably wonderful. I said, what? She goes, Oh my God. I've, I was always been a kind of afraid to die. She was unbelievable. She said, you know, when you get close to dying, because she's known me, I've read different death experiences and she has, and we've talked about over there. She goes, you know how that veil kind of lifts a little bit between the two realms, right? You know, that day or two before people die, sometimes the hour or two, she goes, it's been like that for two weeks. She hadn't eaten for two weeks, not on any, any, uh, drugs or anything. She goes, I'm not eating drugs. I promise you. I know her. Well, she goes, Jesus. He's at the back of the room in first 90 seconds. He didn't say anything, but he looked straight at me. I go in waves of love. Come over me. She goes, it's unbelievable. Just like that. He's gone 60, 90 seconds and the waves stay on me because I've never felt so much love and joy. She goes, Oh my goodness. She was that happened about 14 days ago. Then it happened again that night. Then I fell asleep in a nap and an angel appeared in my dream. They woke up and the angels out there, but the waves hit me again. She goes, Oh my goodness, this is unbelievable. Then the next day I saw him again, but he's on the other side, the room. He just looked at me over the corner and smiled and stared. I go, Jesus say something. And she was waves of power and love hit me. She goes, Oh my God. She goes, Mike, I'm not crazy. She goes, some of my friends visited me and said, Martha, you're losing. It's just, no, this is how it is. She goes, tell Mike Bickle to call me. He'll believe me. I know he will. I said, I do believe you. She goes, I know you do. You used to tell those stories. Cause I just read a bunch of death experiences and people had these and people have real bad ones too. She goes, you know, I've been married for, and I knew her husband well for almost 40 years or some big number. And he died a few years ago. She goes, that was the most wonderful thing in my life was my husband. And she bragged about him for so many years. She goes, dying is better than marriage. She goes, I'm serious. She goes, I know that's weird. Oh, I'm so happy. She goes, I just, I just don't want people not to know this. She goes, would you tell those young people over at IHOP? I go, Martha, I promise you, I will tell them that. So justice to full victory. That was the idea that triggered in my mind. He will bring full justice, worship team come up, all the wrong things made right. And he's working in our life. Even now, he's not going to blow out the candle and he's not going to break the reed. He's going to restore them. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord. It's better than marriage. She said, she goes, and I had a great one. How many of you just feel right now? Oh, I just love Jesus. You got that feeling right now. That's how I feel right now. Telling that story. I said, Martha, that is so beautiful. I says, you know, I, I love to go there. I said, I don't need this information right about now. I need cement boots on to keep me grounded here. I don't need to hear these stories. I said, I'm already drifting and that's so beautiful to think that way. Anyway, let's get back to the subject. Father, here we are before you. We love your presence. You know, there's people in this room, all of us, the Lord saying to you, I'm going to bring victory. I'm going to bring justice to victory in your life. I'm going to bring justice to victory. And you feel like you're that broken tomato plant, that area of your life or more than one area. You're that candle. It's just flickering and you go, Lord, I don't have any help. I hope it's gone. The Lord says, no, it's not. You don't know me. If you think it's over, I'm going to invite anybody that would like prayer tonight for just any subject. I want to invite you to come forward. I'm going to ask the Lord to come and touch us. I'm going to worship and just ask the spirit all over the room. You just come on up now, if you want to, and you can stay in your chair as well, but you can come up if you want. Jesus, here we are. A bruised wreath he will not bring. A smoldering wick he will not put out. Oh, the beauty of this man. Oh, the beauty of this man. Oh, the beauty of this man. Somebody, it's physical healing that they need tonight. To others, it's emotional healing. It's spiritual healing. Spurge him for a bride. To others, it's a financial miracle at break-in of God. To others, it's a relational restoration. He says, I won't blow the candle out. I'll restore it. Oh, the beauty of this man. And Jesus, I love you. Oh, we love you, Jesus. Jesus, here we are. Oh, beloved servant of the Lord, the one that God loves, Jesus, the servant. Come and bring justice to victory in our lives. Oh, your name. She now faint with love, beckons him to come. Established righteousness is God's risen son. On that glorious day, she'll marry her fair. Oh, the beauty of this man. Oh, the beauty of this man. I invite the ministry team, or anybody in leadership, Jesus, I love you. I give you all my worship. Jesus, I love you. Oh, your name is wonderful. He healed them all. He's a healer. I give you all my worship. He won't let the broken reed, the bruised reed be broken. Oh, your name is wonderful. Oh, a bruised reed, he will not break. And a flickering flame, you will not put out. He will not put out. Lord, restore us, rescue us. Lord, sustain us. It's who you are. It's who you are. You are the sustainer. You are the healer. You are the giver of life. Lord, I will hold you up, says the Lord. I will help you. I will never give up on you. You uphold me by your word. You never give up on me. You never give up on me. You uphold me by your word. But you never give up on me. You never give up on me, Lord. You uphold me by your word. You never give up on me. You never give up on me, Lord. You uphold me by your word. You never give up on me. You never give up on me. You uphold me by your word. You never give up on me. You uphold me by your word. Freedom is ours, for you are here Come Holy Spirit, we invite you Even now, we invite you We recognize your presence in this room We recognize your presence in our need of you And we come, and we lay it all down at your feet Cause the truth is, you'll never give up on us I won't forsake you, son You'll never leave us, you won't forsake us And I see you even now, with a mighty hand And it helps to show Here we are, Lord Here we are, here we are We believe you We love your presence, Holy Spirit Your word is yes and amen Your word is yes and amen over us tonight You are the lifter You're the redeemer You are the lifter of my hand You are the lifter The one who restores You're my redeemer The one who rescues You are the lifter You're my redeemer You are the lifter You are the redeemer You are the lifter You're my redeemer I will help you, says the Lord I will help you, says the Lord Lift up your voice to me, cause I hear it Oh, I will lift up your head I will be your help You are weak, I won't forsake you For my strength is made perfect in your weakness Don't despair, I'm with you all Oh, and Jesus, I love you I give you all my worship Jesus, I love you Your name is wonderful Jesus, I love you