Mercy, Not Sacrifice

Seven verses Jesus loved is the name of our current teaching series we're going through here at Twin Lakes Church. My name's Kyle, I'm one of the pastors here. Wanna say welcome, how you guys doing? Balcony. Good, there's some people up there. The worship woke us up. We are so glad to be together this morning as we are gonna be diving back into God's word. And in this series, we're gonna continue on with this idea of looking at verses from what we would call the Old Testament or the Hebrew scriptures, Jesus' Bible, that he quotes in the New Testament.

And this morning, we're actually gonna be spending some time in two different places in Matthew's gospel, chapter nine and chapter 12, where we see Jesus quote the same Old Testament verse. And the verse originally is seen in Hosea 6:6, and it's this quote right here: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Now I have a confession, church. This is a verse that over the years, I've kind of wrestled with a little bit. I've been a little confused by, because if you were to ask me, I would say, well, doesn't God desire mercy and sacrifice? I mean, I think of verses like Matthew 16:24–25, where it says, then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone wants to come after me, let them deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

So this is where a little bit of the confusion for me came in of that sounds like sacrifice. So doesn't Jesus mean both desire mercy and sacrifice? And like any good pastor, when I come across something in scripture that was confusing to me, this is the confession part. I shut my Bible, scratching my head, saying, well, I guess I just don't understand it. And so imagine my conviction when a handful of weeks back, I was asked if I would speak on this verse. And I open up to Matthew chapter nine and right where Jesus quotes, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. He proceeds by saying this to the religious leaders: go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. It was like a gut punch. I was like, oh, okay God, I get it, I get it.

So over the past few weeks, that is what I've sought to do is better understand what is Jesus saying here. And my hope this morning is that for us in this room, we would be encouraged. It is an encouraging verse that Jesus quotes with a powerful and encouraging message. But for some of us, maybe we'll be challenged or convicted. And that's a good thing when the Holy Spirit convicts us. And for some, perhaps God will use this truth to change our lives. And so that's what we're gonna dive into. But first, will you pray with me? Lord, thank you for the opportunity to speak, to be here. God, thanks for what you've prepared in me over the past few weeks. God, I pray that you speak through me and that you soften our hearts and open our ears to what it is you have for us. We need you, God. And we pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.

So this may surprise some of you. I grew up a basketball player. I know I'm not built for the NBA. And actually, I played up into high school and I hadn't even hit my growth spurt yet. I was five feet, 95 pounds freshman year of high school. And I went out for basketball. I'm sure the coach was like, really, this is what I got to work with? I was a little vertically challenged, it's okay. It was pure muscle, of course. But I played halfway through high school and then I stopped playing basketball. And it wasn't my size that kept me from playing anymore. I kind of lost the joy and love for basketball. And the reason was the plays.

At that level of basketball, many of us know you run plays. And the purpose of the play is you run plays to free people up so that you can score points, right? That's the goal, to put the ball in the hoop. And so at that level, we started running plays and I was a point guard, meaning I would bring the ball up the court and kind of set up the play. And I was really good at knowing the plays. Like really good. I could tell you if the coach called number one, I'd put a number one up. I'd pass to my shooting guard on the side. I would run down to the block. I would set a screen. My forward would pop up to the elbow. I roll for a pass. They're never gonna give it to a five-foot tall guy down low. So then I would go out to the corner, look for an open three-pointer. They wouldn't pass it to me there. Then I run the baseline and I curl back around up top to reset the play. I knew how to run the plays.

The problem was I would get so stuck in running the play that I forgot why we were running the play. Like I would get so robotic that if the coach told me to call play one, as soon as that finger went up, I was passing to my shooting guard right there, even if his defender was standing directly in front of him. And I would pass it and turn the ball over and the coach was like, what are you doing? And I'm like, you called play one. That's play one. He's like, that is not play one. I had gotten so caught up in the plays that I forgot the purpose of the play. And in doing it, not only did we miss out on scoring baskets, but I actually, again, lost a little bit of my love for playing. It felt too restricted and it wasn't free anymore.

And this morning, as we unpack the two different times that Jesus quotes this verse and the original context in Hosea, I think we're gonna see that God is addressing something similar in the people that they're talking to. God is addressing people who are so rigid and stuck on the rules, on running the plays of faith that they've forgotten the reason behind them, the heart of the law. And so that's what we're gonna look at. And even though Jesus quotes the same verse, and in all three scenarios, it's the same meaning, I think in their individual context, we'll start to see the different facets and power of this phrase that Jesus quotes.

And so we're gonna start by diving into Matthew chapter nine. If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it up. There's some in the seat in front of you. It'll also be on the screen. We're gonna be in Matthew chapter nine, starting in verse nine and going just to verse 13. This is what it says. "As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. Then Jesus was having, while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?' On hearing this, Jesus said, 'It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means.' And this is where we see his quote. 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinner.'

So to help set this up, if you're new to church or some of the characters mentioned here, Matthew is a tax collector. Now tax collectors in that day, they were despised. They were Jewish folks working for their Roman oppressors and taxing their own people to fatten the pockets of the Romans. And then on top of it, they were allowed to take an additional tax to line their own pockets. Great for them, but to everyone else, they're like, you're robbing us. They were seen as thieves, despicable people, and they were outcasts from the people around them. And so here we see Jesus look at Matthew, a tax collector, and he says, 'Follow me.' And I love this because it's so Jesus, isn't it? To call the person that everyone else has written off. And Jesus says, 'No, no, Matthew, follow me.' And it doesn't tell us much about the, it doesn't seem like it took long for Matthew. He just got up and followed. Okay, maybe he had a longing that we all have, and he saw it in Jesus, what he needed. But it says that he followed.

Next scene, they're at dinner. And dinner in our day is important. You have dinner with someone, it's meaningful. But Jesus says that you're breaking bread with someone. That's like family and tight-knit friends. And here is Jesus eating with Matthew at his house and his disciples. And who else shows up? Well, Matthew's friends. Who are Matthew's friends? The other people that no one likes, and everyone outcasts and pushes out. So Jesus has got this crowd, and he's sharing a meal, and then enter the Pharisees, the religious leaders. And they begin to ridicule Jesus on what they would call an unclean practice. That the filth of these sinners is gonna rub off on you.

Now, in this series, we've talked a lot about the Old Testament law. We've talked about how there were the 10 commandments. And then on top of the 10 commandments, there were 613 laws actually, and they were divided up into kind of categories of moral law, how to live right before God. Civil law, how to live in a civilized manner with one another. But, and then ceremonial law, which were kind of laws around how to worship God. Kind of fitting with love God, love people that we talked about a couple weeks ago, where René said that, pardon me, Jesus said that the law and the prophets hang on these two things. And all of these laws were actually meant, one, to help you behave in a manner that's honoring to God. It's good for you to live moral, right? Morally right. But also to set God's people apart. They would look different from those who didn't worship God. And that's true for us today. If we honor God, we look different than the world around us who doesn't know Jesus, or we should.

But the main purpose of the law was always to expose our own sin, our own need for a savior that we can't keep the law, right? And here on top of all of that, the Pharisees add their own rules that are like extra fence laws and sub rules that they're adding in. And that's what they're calling Jesus out on here. There was no law saying he couldn't eat with them, but they just didn't like how it looked. Again, what if their sin rubs off on you? You know, the Pharisees here, what they're doing is they're living like hypocrites. And we see that word in scripture a lot. But I was looking at social media. I saw a thing pop up that said some characteristics of hypocritical living. And I wrote one down because it stood out to me. It's being a hypocrite is when we judge others based on the sins they have committed, but then I judge myself based on the sins I have not committed.

And that's what Jesus is saying here. The picture of the Pharisees here is they are looking down their noses on the people that are not like them that are committing the sins they don't commit. But isn't that what sin does to us? Doesn't sin, our sin nature help us draw all these dividing lines in our life between us and them? Sin has this way of puffing ourselves up, right? In our own mind and shrinking God down and thinking, I know better than God. I could be Lord of this situation. Or it puffs us up in our own mind and elevates us over the people who are not like us. It makes us feel superior to them. We draw all these lines, but these lines are actually irrelevant because the only real line that sin draws is between an unholy people and a holy God. That's the reality. That's the only line that's actually drawn when we are living in sin because he's holy and perfect and we're not.

And so if you're visiting church this morning for the first time and you're like, I'm new to this whole thing and I've got a story, you're in good company. We all have stories. You're in a room full of no perfect people. This is a place where you are welcome. Look at what Romans 3:23 says. It says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All. It doesn't say for all of sin except for the pastors. It doesn't say for all of sin except for those with perfect church attendance. It doesn't say for all of sin except for those who have been a Christian a certain amount of time. That's not what it says. All have sinned and fall short of God's glory. And this is why Jesus' response to this negative critique to the Pharisees is brilliant because in verses 12 and 13, Jesus says, 'It's not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. So go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinner.'

This is brilliant because Jesus is highlighting those dividing lines that the Pharisees are drawing. He's highlighting these dividing lines and he's saying, I don't know why you're looking down your noses on other people because I actually came for those people. That's who I'm here for. And Jesus isn't saying, hey, Pharisees, I'm not here for you. He's saying, I'm here for all of you unless you think you don't need a savior, unless you think you're without sin, the sick are who need the doctor. So naturally a question that arises, at least in my head, when I was reading this and studying this is, what dividing lines have I drawn in my own life that separate me from them? We all do it.

Maybe in our culture we see a lot of things, maybe it's kind of over status or title or position that we kind of separate ourselves from others. Maybe it's over how much money someone does or does not have. Maybe it's over something you heard about someone else and you're like, ooh, I can't be around them anymore. Can't even believe they did that. I would like us to consider this morning, are those lines rooted in our own sin, our own stuff? Again, maybe that status or title or position, is it like the Pharisees here? Have we puffed ourselves up and thought, I deserve this and I'm better than other people because of my accomplishment? And we look down, is that rooted in pride and ego? Again, how much money someone does or doesn't have? Am I looking at someone with more than me and just saying, man, they're just, look at, they're just hoarding all that money, is that rooted in envy? In jealousy? Because if so, that's a me problem.

Or maybe the other way, maybe you're looking down on others who don't have what you have because greed has a grip on you and you think the more you have makes you more important. Or what about another, pardon me, what about that story you heard about that person? Do you even know the whole story? Or are you just buying into gossip? We all draw these lines and here we see Jesus addressing them. What about this one? Some of us in this room, maybe we draw lines and we put ourselves on the outside and we say, again, I'm just not good enough. If anyone knew the secrets I carry, maybe it's a secret sin that you're dealing with lust or something else private that you're like, I can't talk to anyone about that. Jesus is addressing the dividing lines, all of them. And he's saying, stop drawing these lines with the people around you. I would cross those lines. He's actually here to erase those lines. And that's the good news for us.

If you're feeling convicted, the good news is Jesus says he's here for you. He came for you and for me to help us in our own sin. Something that I think gives even greater insight in this quote is when we look at the verse, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I think it really aids the picture that we see in Matthew 9. Because I've always understood the word mercy to mean not getting what you deserve, the negative thing you deserve. It's forgiveness for that, right? And then grace is unmerited or unearned favor. It's getting the good thing you don't deserve. And I used to, on another confession, little pet peeve is when in the church we interchange those to and I'm like, they're kind of different. But actually, again, I was convicted to look at the word mercy in this phrase because in the Greek, the word is elios. And elios in the Greek, it actually speaks of both mercy and grace. It's both. And it even goes beyond just mercy and grace. The word actually comes from the same root as the word for olive oil, which was an ointment used in Jesus' day to soothe and comfort and heal wounds. Elios is active compassion and mercy and so when Jesus addresses the Pharisees and quotes this, what he's saying is God desires compassion, not comparison. Erase the lines.

Because he desires healing and compassion for broken people. He's calling us to consider crossing the lines that we've drawn between us and them to meet people where they are and be agents of that comfort and healing that God wants to bring rather than judgment. You know, this makes me think of a passage from a book by a guy named Bob Goff. If you are part of the hub in this room or Encore and last month I spoke at Encore, I quoted this. So forgive me for repeating myself, but it's so true and it's so fitting for what Jesus is saying here. But Bob Goff in this book, "Everybody Always" is talking about going skydiving for the first time with his adult son. And he's talking about what the instructor was telling them before they jumped. Listen to this. He says, "There's one last thing the instructor told us in class. He said, 'If your main parachute doesn't open and then your reserve parachute doesn't open either, you've got about 45 seconds before you hit the ground and make your mark.' It gets a little graphic, but bear with me. It's a good point. I was surprised and a little grossed out when the instructor said that hitting the ground was not gonna kill you. Every bone in your body will break, of course. But after you hit the ground, you're gonna bounce. And it's the second time that will kill you because your broken bones are gonna puncture your organs.

He says, 'I know it's graphic, but it's true.' And then he goes on to say, 'If none of my parachutes open when I hit the ground, I'm just gonna grab the grass to avoid the bounce.' But he goes on to say, 'What is true about skydiving is also true in our lives. It's actually not our initial failure that takes any of us out. It's the bounce. We've all hit the ground hard at work or in relationships or with our big ambition. And whether we had a big public failure or an even bigger private one, our initial failure won't crush our spirit or kill our faith. It's the second hit that does. The second hit is what follows when things go massively wrong or we fail big. The people that we thought would rush to us create distance instead. They express disapproval and treat us with polite indifference. If we want to be like Jesus, here is our simple and courageous job. Catch people on their bounce.'

We are all in the same boat. The foot of the cross is level. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So Jesus is saying, instead of drawing the lines, rush to 'em, love 'em. They need healing, just like I need healing. Show compassion and care. 'Cause that's what Jesus modeled for us. But this isn't the only time Jesus quotes that Hosea verse. If you flip over a few pages to Matthew chapter 12, verse one through eight, we're gonna see that Jesus has another interaction with, guess who? The Pharisees. This is what it says in verses, in pardon me, in verse one through eight. 'At the time Jesus went through the grain fields on Sabbath, his disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what's unlawful on the Sabbath." He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? They entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven't you read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests that are in the temple desecrate the day, and yet are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent, for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

So now here again, we see the Pharisees addressing and critiquing and ridiculing Jesus, but this time about breaking an actual law, one of the 10 commandments. "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." And so by the disciples, even just picking grain, they're working on the Sabbath, and so they're not allowed to do that. So they're ridiculing and calling Jesus out on allowing his disciples to break the Sabbath. Now Sabbath, just to kind of give us some context, Sabbath was one day a week, Friday sundown till Saturday sundown, where the Jewish people left margin in their week to be with God. I always think of a few years ago, Herman Hamilton was here. I don't know if anyone else remembers this, but he spoke about Sabbath and it just, it's ingrained in my mind, because he described it as when you were at the coffee shop and you asked for a room in your coffee, because you're leaving room for what? The cream. That's what he said. You got to get the cream in there. And he said, "That's like Sabbath. Sabbath is the margin we leave in our week. Of course we invite God into every aspect of our week, but when we get off track, it's taking that time, that room for the good stuff, to sit with God, to recenter, refocus and be present with who he is, his love for me and to worship him." That's what Sabbath was all about.

So how ironic that the Pharisees are now critiquing Jesus and calling him out on not honoring the Sabbath, his disciples they're calling out, on not honoring the Sabbath, when they're literally walking with Jesus, they're hanging out with the Son of God, God in the flesh. He says, "I am Lord of the Sabbath." That's why when he says, "One greater than the temple is here," God's presence dwelt in the temple. And Jesus was making a bold claim saying, "I am God." They're not doing it. They are innocent. They're with me. This is what Sabbath has always been about. This is the point.

See, the Pharisees didn't understand that God desires presence, not performance. They thought it was about performing, running the plays. But God's like, no, no, Sabbath has always been about being with me. It's about my presence with you and you being with me. See, the Pharisees were really good at keeping the law, but they had misguided religious devotion. They allowed their religious practices to get in the way of their relationship with God. N.T. Wright, a theologian and scholar, New Testament scholar says this in his commentary on this passage. He says, "They," meaning the Sabbath laws, "were there to ensure that God's love for his people would not be interrupted by people being over eager to work more than they should. But if the law, strictly applied, was getting in the way of that love as it flowed out to reach and heal people in desperate need, then it was the law that was wrong. People matter more than things, even if the things are part of the biblical law."

Again, the law was in place to set God's people apart, but also to be a mirror to show people their need for Jesus. To show that they fall short, to draw them back to God. And here we see the religious leaders shaming people away from God when they don't keep the law perfectly. They miss the point. So the very practice that God intended to be a gift to his people for them to rest with him instead became a burden and a way and a shame for them to carry when they messed up. And Jesus is addressing that with this quote. So God desires compassion, not comparison. He desires presence, not performance. And finally, if we look at the original context in Hosea, I would say God desires love, not laws. God desires love, not laws.

Again, Hosea 6:6 is where we see this verse originally. It says, "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings." Now, just to kind of give us some context, Hosea's not a huge book, but I only have a couple minutes to paraphrase this, so I'm gonna do my best to kind of give us some context here. Hosea was a prophet of the Lord. A prophet was someone who speaks on behalf of God. God spoke to him, go deliver a message. And not always a, you don't typically want to be a prophet of God. It could be a little intimidating. You're often bringing unwanted news to a sometimes evil or wicked people group. And in Hosea's case, it was the nation of Israel. God's own people, specifically the Northern Kingdom, Judah was the Southern Kingdom, and they were taken over by the Assyrians, and they began to worship false gods, the Assyrian gods, and they began to practice wickedness and just really kind of mesh with that culture.

And so God says, "Hosea, I want you to deliver this message." And here's the thing, not only was Hosea a mouthpiece, but Hosea's life became a real life example of God's message. God said, "I want you to marry a woman named Gomer who's gonna be unfaithful to you. And when she is unfaithful, I want you to remain faithful, even after she breaks the marriage covenant." And the picture that God was painting for the people is about faithful and devoted love for an adulterous nation. Again, the people in Israel had been taken over by all these wicked things and worshiping false gods, but here's the kicker. On top of all the bad stuff they're doing, they still chose to bring their burnt offerings to God, thinking, this'll keep them happy. They knew the law said, the law said bring a burnt offering to atone for your sin, right? And so they would bring their sacrifice into God. This was an offense, it's offensive.

Over and over in the book of Hosea, it addresses their lack of knowledge of God. The people had forgotten about the relationship with Him. They made it all about, yeah, yeah, we know what He likes. We can look at the law and keep those things. And so they knew about Him, but they didn't know Him. And how many of us know that's a different thing? I think of it this way. This is a picture of my favorite surfer of all time, that's Dane Reynolds. That's not that exciting, you guys were. I thought that was a pretty impressive air. Dane Reynolds is my favorite surfer as far. He just gets radical and he's awesome. And I can tell you a ton about Dane Reynolds. Dane Reynolds used to ride for Quicksilver for a long time when he left Quicksilver. It was a pretty big deal and the surf world went crazy over it. He also was a world tour surfer, but then decided he was gonna be a free surfer instead, and he's probably the most successful free surfer ever, as far as financially and all those things. He's now a business owner. He owns a company called Former Chapter 11. He rides for vans and Channel Islands surfboards. He's married, well, actually, he's from Ventura, California. He surfs a wave called Emma Woods State Beach. If you're ever in the area, you can stop. You might see him. It'll be out there. It's not a very good wave, but he surfs there a lot. He's married and he has three kids, an older son and two twin daughters. I know a lot about Dane Reynolds, but I don't know Dane Reynolds. I don't have a relationship with him.

And this is a little bit of what's happening here. God is saying, you don't know me. You don't have relationship with me and then you're gonna bring me these sacrifices. Like that's doing the trick. It's like when somebody does something out of obligation versus someone who loves us. Don't we feel the difference? You can feel the difference. And so God is addressing the difference here when that's when he comes to the phrase, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. And what's fascinating is that word that we've been looking at in the Greek, elios. Well, Hosea was written in Hebrew and the word is this word, chesid. You have to say it like you're hawking a loogie. Try it with me. Chesid, I was told that. This is one of the most dense words in the Hebrew and it like elios in the Greek, it does mean grace and mercy. It does mean compassion and healing and kindness, but it almost seems to even pack more in there. It speaks to a loyal and devoted love, an unwavering, faithful kind of love. Doesn't that go right in line with the picture of Hosea's life and what God told him to do?

God is reminding the nation of Israel, they're just running plays. They've missed the point. He desires relationship, a loving relationship, not a following of the law. And that's why the same way Jesus emphasized it in Matthew 12 when it came to the Sabbath. And that's why in the same way Jesus referenced it in Matthew nine, because all three examples, we see people who have forgotten the point, that there is a God that has so much love for us and desires more than anything for us to experience the healing and compassion that he has for us so that it can change us and we can be made in right relationship with him. It's the only way that we can be in right relationship with God is because of his sacrifice for us.

I think of Micah 6:8, says, "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good." And what does the Lord require of you, just like we sang earlier? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. That word for mercy, when it says love mercy, it's chesed. But you know, in scripture, the word chesed and elios, they remind us the first part that we skip. He has shown you because God has first loved us and been compassionate towards us and merciful towards us. And so here we see these words, elios and chesed, speaking most notably to God's unfailing, unwavering, healing love and grace for us. The sacrificial system of the Old Testament was always meant to point to the great sacrifice, the one true sacrifice of Jesus towards us. In other words, kind of the big idea is it has never been about sacrifice from you, but rather God's love and mercy for you. He has always desired to forgive and to be in relationship with us.

And so if you're here this morning, and maybe you're like, man, that sounds good, I need healing, Jesus says, come on, there is no line here. I've erased the line with my work on the cross. We're gonna respond in just a moment with a song that we're just gonna encourage you, you can stay seated, and we're just gonna kind of reflect. For some of us, maybe it's a conviction that we're like, okay, God, I get it. I need to erase those lines in my own life that I'm drawing. For some of us, maybe it is, I wanna make this decision to commit myself to Jesus, to have that relationship. The end of service, we're gonna have a few people from our prayer team that we'd love to pray with you and pray over you in that way. So will you join me now as we go to the Lord? God, thank you. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for what you are doing here in this church, what you're doing in our lives as individuals. God, I pray that as we leave here today, we can be changed by the truth of your unfailing, devoted, and loyal love for us, for your compassion and healing you bring to us, the fact that you desire to just be present with us and go with us throughout our day. God, we acknowledge that that only comes by faith and trust in you. And God, I also pray that as we begin that relationship, or if we're already in relationship with you, that you would continue to grow us to be more and more compassionate and loving and healing to those around us, and that we would continue to leave margin in our days for you, God. We thank you for who you are, and we praise you in Jesus' name, amen.