Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

Even though the Lord Jesus was criticized and questioned by the Pharisees as to what His disciples were doing on the Sabbath; Jesus was well able to defend them, and Himself, as their Lord who was permitting it. In doing so, the Lord Jesus was demonstrating His authority to all religious men. And He was furthermore showing us how we can defend ourselves against all the attempts of religious formalists to take away our Christian liberty, in regard to how the commandments of God are to be kept. The question that we are asking this morning is this. “What did the Lord Jesus say in this situation, to defend the actions of His disciples, and preserve their spiritual liberty in regard to keeping the 4th commandment?” And, “What should you and I do and say, when confronted with a similar situation; we who do not have the Lord Jesus physically present with us to defend us?” We can learn from the example of our Lord. He showed these religious formalists where the real authority came from, for what his disciples were doing. Real authority and real freedom for what we are doing, in terms of keeping the commandments of God, and not falling into the false religious practice of keeping the commandments of men, comes from Jesus Christ Himself. It comes from asking ourselves what it was that Jesus said on this particular day. Jesus made three statements in His defense of His disciples, and this strategic defense of Christian liberty I hope you will make your own.