Sheldonville Baptist Church
January 4, 2026

      • Psalm 96:7–13NKJV

  • So Far To Go
  • My Savior My God
  • It Is Well With My Soul
  • Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
  • Greater Is He That Is In Me
  • Oh Great Is Our God
  • What is the point of religion?
    The answer will vary greatly depending upon whom you ask,
    God does give us a couple hints:
    Micah 6:6–8 NKJV
    6 With what shall I come before the Lord, And bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
    James 1:26–27 NKJV
    26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
    Quickly summarized, we could say:
    The point of religion is to help people on behalf of God while helping people focus on God.
    A survey of religion, regardless of time or place will often show that religion as practiced by people is more about controlling people than it is about helping people and more about being God than it is on focusing on God.
    That was certainly the case when Jesus (God the Son) and His disciples ran afoul of the religious practices of His people in His day. We find this in Matthew 12, where He ran afoul not once, but twice.

    Harvesting on the Sabbath, 1-8

    Matthew 12:1–8 NKJV
    1 At 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. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” 3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how 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? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

    It Wasn’t About the Grain

    The religious leaders did not specify what the disciples were doing that was unlawful. Our first instinct might be to note they were eating grain that was not theirs. We can dismiss that though quickly, according to Deuteronomy.
    Deuteronomy 23:25 NKJV
    25 When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.

    It Was about Judaism and the Sabbath

    We can see this based on the nature of Jesus’ response to them.

    David and the Showbread, 3-4

    Jesus references an event from 1 Samuel 21 where David—on the run from Saul—went to the Tabernacle to ask for provision and ended up taking the used Showbread.
    1 Samuel 21:1–6 NKJV
    1 Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?” 2 So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. 3 Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.” 4 And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.” 5 Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.” 6 So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.

    Was it lawful?

    Was it lawful for David and his comrades to eat the used Showbread? We can find the answer that the Pharisees would have found in Leviticus.
    Leviticus 24:5–9 NKJV
    5 “And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it. Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. 6 You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. 7 And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, an offering made by fire to the Lord. 8 Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. 9 And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, by a perpetual statute.”
    Our initial answer would probably be no, it wasn’t lawful. But Jesus clearly gave David a pass on this one.

    God knows how to protect His stuff

    We have to acknowledge that God knows how to protect what is His, just ask the Nazis who opened the Ark of the Covenant.
    OK, that’s a bit of a joke. But it’s based on biblical fact: in 2 Samuel 6, God killed Uzzah for touching the Ark.

    A higher priority

    The fact that Jesus gave David a pass suggests He has a higher priority. What was the point of religion? Helping people on behalf of God and helping people focus on God. David was trying to feed hungry people. And Jesus acknowledges this was a way to help people on God’s behalf.
    Jesus’ point is that His disciples were hungry, so they ate what God had provided for them.

    Priests on the Sabbath, 5

    Jesus further responded by highlighting the Sabbath, since that is what they were so worried about. Now we will remember that the point of the Sabbath was that no work was to be done on the Sabbath: it was a day of rest. We also have to acknowledge—as Jesus did—that some work actually was done on the Sabbath.

    Priests Offered Required Sacrifices

    Numbers 28:9–10 NKJV
    9 ‘And on the Sabbath day two lambs in their first year, without blemish, and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour as a grain offering, mixed with oil, with its drink offering—10 this is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, besides the regular burnt offering with its drink offering.

    Religious Leaders Performed Duties

    They performed circumcisions and led religious services on the Sabbath…and they are work!

    A higher priority

    The fact that Jesus gave religious leaders a pass suggests He has a higher priority. What was the point of religion? Helping people on behalf of God and helping people focus on God. Religious leaders help people focus on God.

    God in the Flesh, 6-7

    Another point that the religious leaders missed was that if you wanted to focus on God, He was standing right in front of them.
    The bottom line of Jesus argument is this: It was not unlawful for them to eat the grain as they were doing and the religious leaders were more interested in controlling people than they were in helping people.
    They had missed the point of the law. No doubt they also missed the point of Jesus’ lesson, too. We can see this by the next episode that Matthew highlights.

    Healing on the Sabbath, 9-13

    Matthew 12:9–13 NKJV
    9 Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 And 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. 11 Then 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? 12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.
    We have already established that the point of religion was to help people on behalf of God and to help people focus on God. Healing someone on the Sabbath is not only allowed but expected. Jesus captures the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, highlighting that their adherence to the Sabbath was really just a pretext for controlling people.

    Hating on the Sabbath, 14

    Matthew 12:14 NKJV
    14 Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.
    At this point if we were to take a survey and ask, “Is having a team meeting to plot the destruction of a political enemy allowed on the Sabbath?” what would your answer be?
    Hatred and the intentional destruction of another person would seem to fly in the face of the Law’s intent.
    Team meetings are generally considered work
    This team meeting wasn’t about helping people on behalf of God
    This team meeting wasn’t about helping people focus on God
    I don’t think this team meeting would have gotten a pass
    This verse again demonstrates the priority of the religious leaders. They actively violated they Sabbath for their own purposes…which was controlling people through religion.
    The point of Religion is to help people on behalf of God and to help people focus on God. Unfortunately, the people entrusted with religion frequently (almost always) turn it into something God never intended it to be.
    What we do here is not about controlling people. It’s not about controlling ourselves. It’s not even about changing ourselves. It’s about trusting in Jesus to save us because we can’t be good enough. It’s about submitting ourselves to the God who loves us, allowing His Holy Spirit to change us from the inside out into who He wants us to be.
    We need to understand and commit ourselves to the role we have and the reason we have it.

      • Micah 6:6–8NKJV

      • James 1:26–27NKJV

      • Matthew 12:1–8NKJV

      • Matthew 12:1–8NKJV

      • Deuteronomy 23:25NKJV

      • 1 Samuel 21:1–6NKJV

      • Leviticus 24:5–9NKJV

      • Numbers 28:9–10NKJV

      • Matthew 12:9–13NKJV

      • Matthew 12:9–13NKJV

      • Matthew 12:14NKJV

      • Matthew 12:14NKJV

  • Arise Shine
Sheldonville Baptist Church
information@sheldonvillebaptist.org
(508) 384-2397
http://sheldonvillebaptist.org
8 members • 1 follower