Bible Readings:
1 Samuel 21:1-9
Isaiah 42:1-13
Matthew 12:1-21
Sermon Outline:
Matthew 12:1–2 (NKJV)
1At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
2And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
I The perfect humanity of Jesus
Matthew 12:3–12 (NKJV)
3But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
4how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
5Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?
6Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.
7But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
8For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
9Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.
10And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.
11Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?
12Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
II The evident divinity of Christ
Matthew 12:6–7 (NKJV)
6Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.
7But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
The Symbol of Chalcedon (A. D. 451)
We, then, following the holy fathers, all with one consent, teach men
to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same
perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly
man, of a reasonable soul and body;
consubstantial with the Father according to the Godhead, and
consubstantial with us according to the Manhood;
in all things like unto us, without sin;
begotten before all ages according to the Godhead,
and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the
Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood;
one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be
acknowledged in two natures;
inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably;
the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union,
but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring
in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two
persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word,
the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning have
declared concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught
us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563)
- Who should come to the Lord’s Table?
Those who are displeased with themselves
because of their sins,
but who nevertheless trust
that their sins are pardoned
and that their remaining weakness is covered
by the suffering and death of Christ,
and who also desire more and more
to strengthen their faith
and to lead a better life.