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The Sabbath of Doing Good

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[Matthew 12:12]
How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!
Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

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On the Sabbath, Jesus was passing through a wheat field with his disciples.
At that time, Jesus' disciples were very hungry.
The disciples ate ears of wheat to satisfy their hunger.

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The Pharisees who saw their actions criticized Jesus and said, “Your disciples are doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath.”
The Pharisees accused and condemned Jesus' disciples for breaking the Sabbath law.

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They claimed that the disciples broke the fourth of the Ten Commandments that God commanded. Because the fourth commandment tells us not to do any work on the Sabbath.
[“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.
On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.]
(Exodus 20:8~10)

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They accused Jesus' disciples of eating ears of grain with their hands as labor.
In order to strictly keep this commandment not to work on the Sabbath, the Jews made 39 separate regulations and imposed a burden on people.

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According to their law, when the disciples cut the ears of grain by hand, they were harvesting.
The act of rubbing wheat with the palm of one's hand is threshing.
Also, blowing the husks with their mouths was a winnowing act, so the disciples broke the three laws. Hearing their words, Jesus told the story of King David, whom the Jews respected, did when he was hungry like Jesus' disciples today.

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When David was being pursued by King Saul, he once visited Ahimelech the priest in the land of Nob. Those who were with David at that time were very hungry.
David asked Ahimelech for some bread for them to eat. But Ahimelech had no bread to give them.

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The only bread Ahimelech had was bread taken from the table in the sanctuary.
Every Sabbath the priests put new warm bread on the table and take away the previous bread.
The bread taken from the table was reserved for only the priests to eat. But Ahimelech took pity on David and his followers, who were suffering from hunger, and gave the bread to them.

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God did not say that Ahimelech was guilty of breaking God's law to help hungry David and his followers with a heart of mercy. But now, Jesus reminded them that the Pharisees were making a merciless mistake by accusing the disciples of their actions by plucking ears of wheat and eating them because they were hungry and accusing them of breaking the Sabbath law.

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Jesus then told the story of the priests who were allowed to work on the Sabbath.
[Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?] (Matthew 12:5)
The priests offer sacrifices of animals and grain to God every Sabbath.

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This is what God Himself commanded people to do.
['On the Sabbath day, make an offering of two lambs a year old without defect, together with its drink offering and a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil.] (Numbers 28:9)
God told us that on the Sabbath, it is pleasing to God to do what we do for God.

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On the same Sabbath, Jesus came to the Jewish synagogue.
There was a man with a shriveled hand. People asked Jesus, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"
These were the people who wanted to accuse Jesus of healing on the Sabbath.

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Jesus gave them an example. “If a man has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not bring it out?” There was a reason Jesus told them this. Because they allowed that if a livestock fell into a pit, it was not against the Sabbath law to be taken out, even on the Sabbath, to save the poor livestock.

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He continued to speak. “People are far more valuable than sheep.
Therefore it is right to do good on the Sabbath.” Jesus answered them that it was very natural and right to heal the sick on the Sabbath.

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And Jesus said to the man with a shriveled hand. “Open your hand.”
Hearing Jesus' words, the man stretched out his shriveled hand.
A miracle happened that his hand was restored as clean as other hands.
Jesus did the right thing to heal the man on the Sabbath.

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As New Testament believers, we keep Sunday as the Sabbath.
When God told us not to work on the Sabbath, He was proclaiming freedom to us.
On this day, he allowed us to stop all the hard work we had been doing for six days and take a true rest. On the Sabbath we should do what pleases God.
We must do what we do to worship God. We must also do things of service that help others.
We should glorify God by doing things like children of God that seek the good of others rather than for our own good.

(This is the sample conclusion provided by CTM. Please feel free to change the conclusion to best suit the listeners of your sermon.)