Sabbath's Rest - Exodus 20:8-11

INTRO

When we were kids we use to climb a huge magnolia tree in our grandparents front yard.

One Sunday we came over after church and started playing outside.

While we were climbing my Grandfather came and hollered at us to get out of the tree.

He said we weren't suppose to climb trees on the sabbath.

Now I don’t know if you grew up being told you couldn't climb trees on the sabbath.

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Not sure what kind of experience you had with the sabbath throughout your life.

While you may have not gotten yelled at for climbing a tree one thing you can relate to is this:

When you ask someone how they’re doing what do they typically reply with?

I’m busy.

These commandments, which occur three times in the Old Testament, literally means “ten words.”

Ten words given by God to his people on how to live in the world.

Today we come to the fourth word,Remember the Sabbath day in our Ten Word series looking at the Ten Commandments.

As we walk through these commandments again we’re not to see the 10 Words as legislation from a cosmic bureaucrat trying to ruin everyone’s fun Rather as wise instructions from a loving father who knows what his kids need to thrive.

If the third word charged us to honor God with our words, the fourth charges us to honor God with our time.

Just as how we use our words reveals how we view God, so does how we spend our time.

The Sabbath command is the longest and most detailed of the ten, and also the one most mentioned in the Old Testament.

It would seem that the call to rest is one in need of emphasis and reiteration.

But how is this command to be observed today?

Does it require, as it did for Israel, that a specific day in its entirety be set aside for rest?

There is controversy over this question that has raged for centuries, and strong opinions are on every side.

Rather than attempt to resolve the disagreement, I want to focus on what we can all agree upon in principle:

that a good God has ordained regular rhythms of rest for those who worship him.

Really here is our Big Idea

Big Idea: God is honored in our rest

We are going to break down each of these commandments, these ten words in the same way

- What does this command reveal about God?

- What does this command reveal about us?

- How does it point us to Jesus?

- How does it show us the path of life?

So let’s start with first,

I. What does this command reveal about God?

What kind of God commands his people to rest?

A God who cares deeply about the physical and spiritual vitality of his people

As God gives these commands what he asks his people to do is remember.

We read in Exodus 20:2

Exodus 20:2 (ESV)

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

He reminds them of the deliverance they had experienced just 50 days earlier.

Now in this word he asks them to remember.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

But this time the charge is to recall an ancient memory instead of a recent one.

In the introduction to the Ten Commandments, God reminds Israel that he is her deliverer.

In the fourth commandment, God reminds Israel that he is their Creator.

Instead of appealing to their recent identity as slaves, God appeals this time to their basic identity as image bearers.

The practice of remembering the Sabbath requires Israel (and us) to remember what God has ordained for his children from the earliest moments of human existence:

a pattern of work followed by rest, as set forth in the creation account of Genesis 1 and 2.

Remember, says the fourth word, that the story of God’s creative act concludes with rest.

The people of God reflect him when they observe rest after labor, both by partaking of it themselves and by providing it to others.

What does this reveal about God?

How good is the God of Israel, who commands rest!

As Israel well knew, the gods of Egypt and Canaan required labor without rest, ceaseless offerings to secure their favor.

But not Yahweh.

In the command to cease, God distinguishes himself from the pagan deities of Israel’s past and future neighbors.

In the fourth word, God answers the question, “Who is like you, O God, among the nations?” with an unequivocal “No one.”

This call to rest is the first thing regarded as holy in the pages of scripture.

The first thing set apart to the Lord is the Sabbath.

Consider this.

God made man on the 6th day. What was man suppose to do on the first full day after being created?

Rest!

Every other religion says if you want to be right w/God then get to work

God of the bible says wanna be right? / STOP doing and just be

Stop & remember that I’m the source of all you have / Fount of every blessing

Sabbath is a gift of grace for us to be restored, replenished, repaired

We see in this command a God who cares for his people, who fights and works for us and calls us to rest in that care.

Now what does this command reveal about us?

II. What does this command reveal about us?

What kind of people need to be commanded to take time off to rest?

A restless people

The word sabbath means to stop.

But we are a people always in motion.

To be busy is a virtue in our culture.

Being a workaholic is frowned upon it is celebrated.

The 40 hour work week is dead

Many are working anywhere from 45 to upwards of 60 and 70 hour work weeks.

Rather then trying to carve time out to replenish and rest we try to create new ways to get more done.

The busyness crisis forces our brains into a different way of behaving.

Most notably we believe multitasking is the way in which to dig us out of the being overly busy hole.

In reality study after study shows that it doesn't work.

We now have a sleep crisis.

The devices we created to make life easier have somehow made it more demanding.

More of us are so full and constantly entertained that we aren't sleeping and the result irritability, anxiety, and depression.

The Japanese have this phrase Karoshi and it means death by overwork.

I remember the rhetoric of 2020, “I need to slow down, I need to be with my family more. I am going to rest.”

As the years have passed we have slipped right back into our exhausting tendencies.

We are a weary people.

We are a restless people.

When we open the pages of scripture we see that we HAD the rest of God, blessing of God,

We had the satisfaction of good & gracious Father

But when our 1st parents decided to be own king, ruler, live their own way, we lost His rest.

Ever since then we’ve been a people striving for blessing, satisfaction & rest in wrong places

For some, striving for blessing & satisfaction comes not through work but recreation

Have to address because some of us bang the drum of needing time of resting.– Some of you may be like Finally something I’m awesome at / I am the best at time off and relaxing I am so good at leisure

Some of us may even be guilty of worshipping leisure

This is a cheap rest

Our modern conception of Sabbath is often little more than “taking a day off” for the purpose of relaxing.

But true Sabbath rest is set apart as holy: it is intended for worship as much as for well-being.

The fourth word does more than tell us to relax.

Sabbath rest is distinct from idleness (resting without first laboring) and different from simply having gotten enough sleep.

The word shabat means “cease.”

To sabbath is to cease activity for the purpose of remembering God’s provision, that we might worship him as we ought.

Being well-rested and taking care of ourselves are good things, but they are at best a thin obedience to the fourth command.

For others striving is through our work /

These are those who worship work & rarely if ever really rest

Even when not at work not really resting /

It’s our day off and we are thinking about what else we have to do

Life has this way of piling on until everything is obligation & we’re constantly going

This leads to Exhaustion, fatigue, lack of focus, lack of desire, besetting sins / Escapism

This is a difficult word for me.

Ask my wife, I have a hard time resting.

It’s been joked that planting a church is somewhere between starting a business and world war 3.

But even as I share that I work too much I can feel the pride well up within me that I am a pastor who labors hard.

But to labor hard without resting isn’t noble, it’s sinful.

This week I have had to repent and hear what the fourth word says.

So do you friends.

We don’t rest well

TWO foresters were competing against one another to see who could chop down the most trees in a day.

One forester was a young guy and the other was an experienced older guy.

The day of the competition, the young guy jumped up first thing and went eight hours straight chopping trees.

At the end of the day, he had chopped down twenty-five trees.

He knew that the older gentleman wouldn’t be able to compete.

The young guy knew he was young and had more strength.

In addition, the young forester thought back on the day, remembering that every hour or so the older man had taken a ten-minute break.

The younger guy felt more assured of his win because he hadn’t taken any breaks.

At the end of the day he had done his twenty-five trees only to discover the older man had done forty.

In shock he asked, “How is this possible, old man? I didn’t stop. You stopped every hour for ten minutes or so and yet you chopped down almost twice as many trees as I did. How is that possible?”

The older man said, “Yeah, yeah, I understand your question. You were working hard, you were sweating you were grunting, and you were groaning. But every hour I sat down for ten minutes. I did two things.”

He said, “First of all, I recovered. Secondly, I sharpened my axe.

You were working hard but you were working with dull equipment.”

Man of us feel the weight of dullness as we continue to trudge through our busy lives.

What’s underneath?

All have deep-seeded soul-level internal ‘work’

It is a Desire to prove…to justify ourselves

We all have some set of standards we’re trying to meet

There’s a trial in our hearts to see if we measure up

It is like a Prosecutor/defense battling

Always trying to prove to ourselves, others, and to God

This is Exhausting work

The fourth word shows us that there is a God who knows us & our needs / Loves us enough to make us stop & rest in Him Augustine said famously

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” _Saint Augustine

III. How Does This Commandment Point to Jesus?

The sabbath was an issue that came up often for Jesus.

Let’s get a clear picture of how this word points us to Jesus by looking at interaction Jesus has in Mark 2, Look at Mark 2:23-28

Mark 2:23–28 (ESV)

One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

Because of humanities desire to prove our selves, God’s people took the gift of Sabbath & made it a burden

Rather than Sabbath being rest & joy

It became about following the rules

Desire to do Sabbath ‘right’ / If no work, then what qualifies as work? / 39 Categories...

1,999steps

You could not make or put out fire

You could only Sew+1stitch

You could only Write+1letter

You couldn’t Tie a knot

In their desire to follow the letter of the law they lost the spirit of the law

Jesus & disciples traveling on Sabbath / His disciples are Hungry, pick some grain

Now Deut. 23 allowed for this but it broke the restrictive

Pharisees confront him (were they hiding?)

Jesus’ response - Have you ever read the Bible?

You have a goofy rule, what’s the Bible say?

1 Samuel 21 – King David on the run

Loaves in temple are reminder of God’s presence & provision. They have a set apart purpose.

David in a moment of need ate this bread

Did David or the Priest sin? / NO /

God is God of mercy / Jesus is telling these Pharisees they are Missing point of Sab

Sabbath is gracious gift to meet man’s need, not burdensome demand to crush him

Jesus is saying I made the Sabbath / I am the Lord of the Sabbath / In fact, I am the true Sabbath /

How?

Think of our life of self-justification, proving ourselves is a restless life / Work never finished

Jesus accomplished work we never could / Credited to us so we’d find rest for weary souls

He had Perfect rhythms of work & rest

He had Perfect trust in Father, blessing, satisfaction in Him

Jesus lost rest of God on cross / Endured our penalty for living own life own way

As he died, he cried out ‘it is finished’ / What was finished?

Everything required for salvation for the most weary & restless soul

Jesus Fulfilled req of Law

Are we Saved by works? Yes…just not our own.

We rest not on our works, but Jesus’ perfect works for us

Sabbath gives rest from physical work yes, but it is also rest from striving, self-sufficiency & justification

Rest from hiding

Rest from work / My work matters, but it’s not what justifies me

Christ, it’s your work not mine that is my only hope /

That leads to deep rest o Matt. 11:28-30

Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV)

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus calls us to real rest.

Some of us feel that accusing voice already again.

We feel the tendency to want to be cruel to ourselves, condemning even.

Maybe we feel like our work was insufficient this week and before we can rest we need to more.

We feel so weighted.

We are so unkind to ourselves.

But as I say to you that Jesus has worked for you, do you see that he desires good for you friend? That he wants you to rest from striving because he has finished the greatest work?

Hear this from Dane Ortlund.

Our trouble is that we do not take the Scripture seriously when it speaks of us as Christ’s body. Christ is the head; we are his own body parts. How does a head feel about his own flesh? The apostle Paul tells us: “He nourishes and cherishes it” (Eph. 5:29). And then Paul makes the explicit connection to Christ: “just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body” (5:29–30). How do we care for a wounded body part? We nurse it, bandage it, protect it, give it time to heal. For that body part isn’t just a close friend; it is part of us. So with Christ and believers. We are part of him. This is why the risen Christ asks a persecutor of his people, “Why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). Jesus Christ is comforted when you draw from the riches of his atoning work, because his own body is getting healed. _Dane Ortlund

We are called to draw from the riches of sabbath rest from the Lord of the sabbath himself.

this leads us to see finally

IV. What Does This Command Reveal About the Path of Life?

According to a Greek legend, in ancient Athens a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys.

He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.

Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground.

Then he said to the critical Athenian, "Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bows implies."

The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what point Aesop was trying to make.

Aesop explained, "If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it."

We are designed to take rest.

So what should Sabbath-keeping look like for us? (BIG DEBATE, THE LORD’S DAY)

How do we live out heart of 4th word?

Hard because again it’s not about letter of Law but spirit which is to rest in & be satisfied in God

Start with remembering the Sabbath day & keeping it holy...

It isn’t just taking a day off for ‘us’

It's not just hey we're over busy and it's the digital age with busy schedules so lets take a day off and sleep in and watch a movie and go up in the mountains and enjoy life one day a week so we don’t have to work all the time

That's only half of the conversation the other half in particular for you and me as followers of Jesus is this is a day for worship to reconnect not only with your body and your soul and your family or friends but to reconnect with the God who made you

Its taking a day off to focus Godward

Intentionally recalibrating our hearts to Him

When we take time to rest a helpful practice is to run every activity that you think about through a grid:

Is this rest and is this worship?

If the answer to both is yes then yes absolutely yeah go for delight

If the answer to one or two is no or kind of but not really then should you hold off?

Not because it's a bad thing but because there are six other days for that

There's six other days to watch that movie or do that thing or run by that shop or buy that whatever

There's six other days for that today is a day for rest and for worship because the Sabbath is not the same thing as a day off

So, 4 Suggestions for you to consider:

1. Prayerfully evaluate your current rhythms (need to prepare for Sabbath)

2. Consider fasting from technology

3. Delight in serving the Lord Jesus (Charity, necessity, mercy)

We remember the letter of the Sabbath command by resting from labor. We remember the heart of the Sabbath command by laboring for the rest of others.

As Jesus offered spiritual rest for our souls, so also we can offer rest for weary souls to those God places in our path. We can proclaim with our lips the good news of Christ to those weighed down by guilt.

We can proclaim with our obedient lives that true rest is found in living as loved and accepted children of God.

We can intercede in prayer for the lost and the broken.

We can shine like lights in the weary darkness, as beacons of Sabbath restoration and renewal.

All efforts to relieve spiritual suffering or bondage in the name of Jesus Christ show us to be true servants of the Lord of the Sabbath.

4. Set aside time & space to enjoy friendship with Christians

Church historically gathered to rest together.

Sabbath is meant to stir us to worship & trust God

Some of us are resistant but I promise He’ll make us fruitful other 6 if we’re faithful in 1

1. How weary and tired am I today?  2. What keeps me from observing the principle of the Sabbath? 3. Where does this inner work of proving myself exhaust me the most?  4. How can trusting in Jesus' finished work for me free me to actually enjoy a Sabbath?