In this episode, we look at Jesus healing on the Sabbath Day.  Since Jesus operated under the Old Covenant, the question invariably arises, why did He minister this way?

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Compassion is part and parcel of your being as a born again child of God. Hone in on it. Look for it to arise from within you and by all means yield to it.

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What other lessons have you learned about healing that could add to this discussion? Please leave your comments in the comments section below.

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the subject of Divine Healing and Miracles by clicking on the links above.

♦ Page: – Healing and Miracles

♦ Podcast: – How to Minister Healing Like Jesus Did

♦ Video: R.W. Schambach Ministering Healing

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

J. Vernon McGee told of a man who came to him and said, “I’ll give you $100 if you will show me where the Sabbath day has been changed.” McGee answered, “I don’t think it has been changed. Saturday is Saturday, it is the seventh say of the week, and it is the Sabbath day. I realize our calendar has been adjusted, and can be off a few days, but we won’t even consider that point. The seventh day is still Saturday, and it is still the Sabbath day.” He got a gleam in his eye and said, “Then why don’t you keep the Sabbath day if it hasn’t been changed?” McGee answered, “the DAY hasn’t changed, but I have been changed. I’ve been given a new nature now, I am joined to Christ; I am a part of the new creation. We celebrate the first day because that is the day He rose from the grave.” That is what it means that the ordinances have been nailed to the cross, Col. 2:14. ¹

Jesus Work Ethic of Healing on the Sabbath

John 5:6–9 (NKJV)
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.

• The whole religious crowd, the scribes, the lawyers, and the Pharisees, and all the rest of the Jewish religious leaders of Jerusalem viewed the Sabbath way differently than Jesus did.
• According to the religious thinking of the day, it was sinful to do anything on the Sabbath.
  • In the Mishnah, which was a commentary on how to keep the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, work was actually broken down into thirty-nine different activities.²
• Can you believe the Jews defined work 39 different ways?
• The definitions for what constituted work was so out of whack, that Jewish doctors wouldn’t even touch you if it was the Sabbath day.³
• The only time a doctor could help you according to the religious thinking of the day is if you were getting ready to die.
• The rest of everybody had to just tough it out.
• Bleeding? Tough it out.
• Need stitches? Man up.
• No antibiotic cream for you honey, it’s the Sabbath.
• No band-aids for you. That’s work. That’s a violation of the law.
• Broke your leg, bite down on a piece of wood.
• Busted a disc in your back, pull your upper lip over head so you can distract yourself from the pain.
• This is the best religion has to offer.
• Religions ultimate message concerning the sick is to tough it out.
• This was not the message of Jesus.
• Jesus healed this man at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day.
• And, He healed four other people on the Sabbath day.
• None of them were close to death.
• It’s not like He couldn’t have waited until the next day to heal these five cases.
• Out of the twenty-three individual cases of healing in the ministry of Jesus, five of them were Sabbath day rescues.

1. The man with the withered hand in Mark 3:1-6.
2. The woman bent-over for eighteen years in Luke 13:10-17.
3. The man with the dropsy again in Luke 14:1–6.
4. The man born blind in John chapter 9.
5. And, the man at the Pool of Bethesda in John 5.

• The question has to be answered.
• Why did He do it when He could have waited?
• He waited four days for Lazarus to die.
• He didn’t wait one day for any of these Sabbath cases?

The Sabbatical Outlook of the Old Testament

• Compare Jesus actions in the gospels concerning the Sabbath to what we find in the Old Testament.
• Drawing from Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, we have these words.

Exodus 20:8 (NKJV)
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

• How was a Jewish person supposed to keep the Sabbath holy?

Leviticus 23:3 (NKJV)
3 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

• No work meant you couldn’t even build a fire on the Sabbath day.

Exodus 35:3 (KJV)
3 Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.

• In Numbers 15:32-36, an Israelite was found picking up sticks on the Sabbath. At the instruction of the Lord, the man was stoned to death.

Numbers 15:32, 35–36 (KJV)
32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. 35 And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. 36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.

• These passages declares that working on the Sabbath was indeed a violation of the law of God.
• But, Jesus healing on the same Sabbath day was not a violation.
• We have a dilemma. A man couldn’t pick up sticks but a healed man could pick up his bed which were made out sticks.
• What gives?

Matthew 12:9–10 (KJV)
9 And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue: 10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.

Jesus Answers the Religious Crowd Concerning the Sabbath

• Jesus testified the following concerning the Father God.

John 14:10 (NKJV)
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

• He also said.

John 5:19 (NKJV)
19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

• These verses declare that both the Father and the Son were working together to heal on the Sabbath day.
• Always remember, divine healing is a family business.

Acts 10:38 (KJV)
38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

• All three members of the God head are at work to bring healing to mankind.
• They were all at work to bring divine healing on the Sabbath day
• The Trinity conspired to give the Pharisees a hard day by totally messing up their theology.
• This verse, in Acts 10, is such a key verse in the area of divine healing and why is that so?
• Because the verse says God was with Him.

Matthew 28:18–20 (NKJV)
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

• God was with Jesus and He is with you.
• Healing hasn’t changed then since the days of Jesus.
• It’s still a family business.
• And, you are part of the family.
• You can minister like Jesus did because of it.
• So, it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath.
• Jesus did it and God was with Him.
• Jesus did it and the Holy Ghost anointed Him to do it.
• Well, what about the man who picked up sticks on the Sabbath day and was stoned for it?
• What’s up with that?
• Does that seem harsh to you?
• Wasn’t this man also doing well?
• What’s the difference between a man picking up sticks and Jesus picking up a man?

The Compassion of Jesus

• Here’s the missing component, compassion.
• Here’s the reason Jesus healed on the Sabbath.
• It’s the same reason He healed the day after the Sabbath and the day before the Sabbath.
• Compassion always trumps the law.
• The compassion of God, the compassion of the Trinity, is higher than the law.

Matthew 12:1–2 (ESV)
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”

• Can you hear the Pharisees hollering, violation. violation, violation?
• It’s not a violation.
• Compassion trumps the law.
• It’s higher than the law.
• And so Jesus response to the religious bunch sets the record straight.

Matthew 12:6–8 (NKJV)
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.”

• The disciples were hungry.
• They needed to eat.
• Compassion said they ought to be fed.
• In the ministry of Jesus, compassion was the driving force.

Matthew 14:14 (KJV)
And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

• The Greek word ‘moved with compassion’ means to be deeply moved or affected in one’s inner being, especially in that aspect (the bowels) characterized by sympathy and compassion.
• In some cases, it’s translated moved with compassion. In other cases, it’s translated ‘have compassion’ or ‘had compassion’.

Matthew 15:32 (KJV)
Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

• When Jesus saw this great crowd who hadn’t eaten in three days, He was moved with compassion.
• When He met two blind men one day, He had the same response.

Matthew 20:34 (KJV)
So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

• When He saw a poor woman grieving over the loss of her dead son.

Luke 7:12–15 (NKJV)
12 And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.

•  When Jesus saw the hungry, He was moved.
• When He saw the sick, He was moved.
• When He saw the grieving, He was moved.
• That’s why He healed on the Sabbath day because compassion moved inside of Him.
• Jesus yearned in His bowels to see people better than they were.

Compassion Flows Through You

• What should you do when you sense compassion for a sick person?
• You should give God your hands.
• You should make yourself available for God to use you.
• Why?

1 John 3:17 (KJV)
17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

• Because if you don’t, the love of God doesn’t hold sway in your life like it ought.
• If you see a need, if you come into contact with that need, your bowels of compassion should move within you.
• If they don’t, then the problem is your love walk.
• When compassion calls, when it grabs you, love is supposed to answer.
• Here’s another way of saying this.
• Compassion is the feeling part.
• Love is the decision part.
• How many of you have heard that love is not a feeling, it’s a decision?
• And that’s true. Love is not a feeling, but compassion is.
• Compassion is the yearning, the strong sense of sympathy you feel within your insides.
• It’s a sense you should hone in on and act on.
• If you don’t act on it, there’s a problem.
• You may have the principles, you may have the techniques but there’s still a problem.

1 Corinthians 13:2 (KJV)
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

• Love defines us.
• Compassion centers us.

The Man Who Picked Up Sticks on the Sabbath

• So now, we get to the man who picked up sticks on the Sabbath day.
• What about that whole seemingly harsh situation?
• Love gives us the answer.

Romans 15:1 (KJV)
1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

• Why was this man ordered to be stoned?
• Who benefited from this man’s work on the Sabbath?
• This man was simply out for himself.
• This man was trying to please himself.
• Compassion isn’t self-absorbed.
• It’s aim is to lift the other man to bless the other man.
• If you are only going to live a life which benefits you, you have a short road ahead.
• Jesus wasn’t trying to please Himself on the Sabbath Day.
• He was responding to compassion.
• Jesus didn’t stop feeling His insides just because the sun went down on Saturday.
• His bowels didn’t stop yearning for the sick to be made well just because of the shadow on the sundial shifted.
• It didn’t matter to Jesus what day it was.
• If you want to minister like Jesus did, it can’t matter to you either.
• Compassion must have expression in our lives.
• We have to yield to it.
• We have to let it flow out of us.
• What is Saturday, anyway?
• It’s just the earth doing it’s rotation thing.
• What is Saturday?
• It’s just the physical spinning of planet earth.
• It has nothing to do with the compassion which came from the God who created the earth’s rotation in the first place.
• Romans 13:8 sums all of this up for us.

Romans 13:8 (NKJV)
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

• Walking in compassion is not breaking the law it’s fulfilling the law.
• Now if that doesn’t convince you, how about this?

Matthew 12:10–12 (KJV)
11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? 12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.

• Compassion even reaches it’s hand out even to the animals in the animal kingdom.
• Even, compassion for an animal was not a violation of the Sabbath according to Jesus.
• Pulling sheep out of a pit was doing well.
• Did you know this rather useless fact that sheep can weigh anywhere from 100 lbs to 350 lbs.
• Think you can get a 350-pounder out of a pit without calling it work?
• But it’s not work.
• It’s compassion.
• If God has compassion on the animals, if His bowels yearn because of His creation, how much more the man of His creation?

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