For Our Good
Engage
I looked out at the weather forecast for the coming week and the weatherman says we’ve got some cooler weather headed our way! Praise the Lord! It looks like we’re gonna need to grab our sweaters because these 107 degree days will soon be replaced by bone-chilling 98’s and 99’s.
Setting our minds on even cooler weather, there was once a pastor of a church far north from here who found the roads blocked by snow and ice one Sunday morning, so to make it to his church on time, he was forced to skate on a river to get to church. That’s hard for us to imagine, I know, but let’s go with it.
So the pastor skated to church and the means by which he got there was not missed by certain leaders of the church. These leaders were horrified that their preacher had skated on the Lord’s day, so after worship they held a meeting where they demanded that the pastor explain his actions. The pastor explained that with the road closures, it was either skate to church or not make it at all. One of the leaders asked the pastor, “Well, tell us this… Did you enjoy it? Did you enjoy your time skating in to church this morning?” The pastor paused to consider the question and after a moment said, “Brothers and sisters, I can say with great confidence, ‘no.’ I did not enjoy myself while skating this morning.” There was another moment of silence and then the group of church leaders huddled together, whispering to each other their thoughts from their interrogation of the ice skating preacher until finally one spoke up and said, “Pastor, because you say that you did not enjoy skating, we believe that your skating to church this morning was alright.”
Tension
This morning, our studies of the Bible return us to the gospel according to Luke and today is the first of five messages that will come in a series we’re calling Living Differently. In Living Differently, we will invite King Jesus to shine light on some aspects of how we ought to live out the Christian faith and this morning, we’re looking at the topic of Sabbath. This series certainly can’t enable us with every aspect of how we should live, but it’s our prayer that God will use these next few weeks to grow our hearts for him and this faith we have been given for his glory.
I know Sabbath a word that brings about a bunch of confusion. It certainly creates a bunch of debate. I think for some people, Sabbath is something done by the super-spiritual folk.
So, I want to start by making sure we’re all on level footing. Someone might be wondering, “What is Sabbath?” Well, Sabbath is defined as a day of complete rest from our labors. Sabbath has been established and modeled by God himself and Sabbath is one of what we commonly refer to as spiritual disciplines. There’s another new phrase for some, so let me define that one for you. A spiritual discipline is a practice or an activity that intends to bring about spiritual growth and deepen a follower’s relationship with God. Other spiritual disciplines include Bible study, prayer, fasting, worship, solitude, serving and so forth…
God takes these disciplines very seriously. These disciplines are means God has given you and me to strengthen our trust in Jesus.
But there’s just one problem with spiritual disciplines like Sabbath. Over time, people forget the purpose or the point of doing them. Have you ever noticed that once someone forgets why you do something, then the focus shifts to how you do that thing?
I remember once that someone I worked with approached me to let me know that I hadn’t filled out a report properly. I asked this other person for clarification about where I went wrong and there was a specific box that I didn’t check, literally, and apparently not checking that box created a bunch of heartburn for that person’s department. I just supposed that I overlooked the thing but when I looked at the report again and I thought about what I knew about what the report was for, I asked why that department even needed a box checked at all. Do you know what that person told me? “I don’t know. All I know is that the box is on the report and if that box isn’t checked, we’re all ready to jump on the guy’s case who filled it out.”
If you’ve ever voiced a curiosity about the subject of Sabbath, I’m confident that nearly everyone you’ve voiced that in front of has a set list of boxes to check that confirm whether you’ve done Sabbath right. And that, in part, is because we have approached these subjects by asking the wrong question.
I’ve given you a definition of Sabbath and our minds will ask, “Well, how do I do that?” That’s a good question, but I tell you, that’s not the first question. We are so quick to jump to the practical bits and skip right past the heart of the matter!
Do you know why God has given to his people the discipline of a Sabbath rest?
Why don’t we seek out God’s heart on the subject of Sabbath?
Truth
As we turn our attention to the text before us, we should observe that Luke has brought before us two distinct Sabbath day events from the life of Jesus. The first focuses on the actions of the disciples of Jesus as they walked through a field of grain and the second focuses on the actions of Jesus himself in the Jewish version of a church service, at a place called a synagogue. In Luke’s recording of these events, it’s clear that we have two sides who are at odds with each other: on one side, it’s Jesus and his disciples and on the other it’s the religious leaders of the day who are called the scribes and the Pharisees. It is these scribes and Pharisees who believe that they are defending the right way of how to live a God-honoring life according to what the Word of God would have people obey.
With that in mind, let’s dig a little deeper into these two accounts. Let’s see what jesus and the disciples did that is causing a bunch of fuss.
Look with me at Luke 6:1 to see that
Luke 6:1 ESV
1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
After a few months of drought like we’ve faced, it may be a stretch of our imaginations to envision a field with life-giving growth springing forth from the earth, but Luke invites us to picture just that. And more than that, he’s also inviting us to recognize that Jesus is walking through grainfields with a rather large following coming with him. For those of us familiar with the gospels, we would be wrong to assume that it’s just Jesus and twelve devout followers who are walking through these fields. We’ll see next week when we pick up in Luke 6:12 that Jesus will call twelve to be apostles out of the group who are called his disciples. In what’s being told to us here, we should have in our minds a picture of a crowd of people in a field.
Where are Jesus and his disciples headed? Well, their ultimate destination isn’t important because Luke doesn’t include that here, but it’s fair to say that if the disciples were playing the game Monopoly, they picked up the “Go directly to jail and o not pass go” card. What was their offense? We read it already… They plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
And it’s when the disciples do that, that the Pharisees enter onto the stage. I wish I could tell you where these guys come from, but the best I can tell is that they were like those people who snoop on others by peering through their blinds or grabbing a step ladder to take a peek over a fence. They’re always there watching, but you don’t know it until they reveal themselves. And they rush onto the scene saying, Luke 6:2 “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
That should catch our attention no matter how much or how little we know about Jesus. We should be saying, WHOA! Is Jesus like some of the preachers of our day who deny that men and women like you and me have a sin issue? Is Jesus concerned with what God has to say at all?
Let’s hold this in our minds and look to the second scene. We can see from the text that Luke brings us into the scene of another Sabbath day, this time taking us to church. The scene has us see that Jesus is teaching and in the audience is a man with a withered hand along with those pesky scribes and Pharisees. I can call them pesky because they didn’t show up to church that particular day with a right heart about themselves. A right heart for them, and a right heart for us when we come to church, would have us offer all that we have in heart, mind, and spirit to give praise to the King of the cosmos, but these guys on this particular day came like referees ready to throw a penalty flag. Who else is excited for football season? Without the scribes and Pharisees even saying a word, Jesus knew this and he calls the man with the withered hand to come near him and Jesus healed him instantly. The text specifically says, Luke 6:10 speaking of the man with the withered hand, “...his hand was restored.” From the perspective of the scribes and Pharisees, this was a blatant Sabbath violation. They didn’t even bother to put it into words for Jesus, Luke tells us simply their reaction to the event. Luke 6:11 “...they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.”
So we have these two Sabbath day events before us in this passage. The disciples of Jesus gathered food and ate on a commanded day of rest. Jesus himself healed a man on another Sabbath day. We know that the religious men take exception to the actions of Jesus and his disciples. Why are the religious leaders getting so bent out of shape? Well, let’s look at where the Pharisees are coming from.
Something that you should know about Pharisees and scribes is that these are men who have been well-educated in the Bible. To their credit, since their childhood they have been committed to the study of God’s Word, even memorizing the first five books of the Bible that I hope you have not already closed. On a subject like Sabbath, these guys can each recall a passage like the following:
Exodus 20:8–11 ESV
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
What makes that passage so important to a Jewish teacher? Well, this is number four of the ten commandments that God gave to Israel through Moses while they were in the wilderness. It might just be a little important. It is important but let me try to explain to you how that commandment becomes a point of contention in our text this morning and frankly, why you and I struggle so much in whether we are supposed to have a Sabbath and if so, what we can do on it.
Here’s the essence of the complication: Exodus 20:10 “...the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work...”
What is work? What does God have in mind here that he’s forbidding man from doing? Well, the Pharisees were students of the Word of God and so they scoured their Bibles to answer that question and they find this:
Numbers 15:32–36 ESV
32 While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. 34 They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. 35 And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36 And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Not exactly an exhaustive definition of work, but apparently on this occasion, this man gathering sticks was a violation of the fourth commandment and for his sin, he was executed.
Now, these two passages we just saw came over a thousand years before these Sabbath events Luke is telling us about. There is a lot of history between when the Ten Commandments are given by God and when Jesus enters into time. For the nation of Israel itself, if you thumb through the books of the Old Testament beyond the first five, you discover that the book of Joshua sees God’s people enter into the Promised Land and beyond Joshua, we can read just how little concern the people of God have for God and his Word. It gets to the point that the entire nation, the people who God had set apart from all the rest to reveal the glory of God, are so disobedient that God judges them by bringing the wrath of the non-believing nations upon them and in so doing, they lose the land God gave them. I’m really summarizing right now, but I’m doing so because we just don’t have the time to do a full historical study. God does restore the nation to the Promised Land, but they’re never really free and independent like they once were.
If you’ve ever been spanked after disobeying your parents, you’ll remember that a lot of the time, you learn your lesson and do your best to avoid another spank. If you remember that, then you’ll understand an important detail that I’m going to share with you. After re-entering the Promised Land, the religious leaders don’t want to repeat history and lose their land again, so to make sure that God’s people never forget or break God’s Law, they create a set of rules drawn from how they thought God’s Word should be applied. They don’t want God’s spanking again. The commentator David Garland helps us understand this when says that the Pharisees set up what they themselves described as a “fence around the law” in creating a rule book called The Mishnah.
And in the Mishnah, the rulebook that these Pharisees and scribes had authored, it was stated that reaping, winnowing, threshing, and preparing food each fall into the definition of work and in that act of plucking grain, rubbing it between their hands, and eating it, the disciples of Jesus were guilty of not one, but four violations.
Who did this Jesus think he is? Was he someone who flagrantly disobeyed God and willfully lead his disciples to break the law of God?
You’ve heard me say it countless times, and I say this because Scripture says it, Jesus knew no sin. Yet to break God’s law is to sin. Is what the Bible says about Jesus wrong? Is Jesus a sinner? I mean, in both these accounts of supposed Sabbath violations, Jesus stands accused of disobeying the Word of God. Little did his accusers know that the one who stands accused is himself the Word who became flesh.
Fixing our attention at the first Sabbath account we see that Jesus responds to the rules of the Mishnah by bringing forth an example of from Israel’s history that would tear down the proverbial fence that been built around the law. In Luke 6:3-4, Jesus refers to a time where David and his men hungered and took bread that was reserved for only the priests and they ate. It was also a Jewish tradition that this time when David did this...was on a Sabbath day.
How Jesus explains this is key. In his pointing out this scenario with David, Jesus is revealing to the hearts of the Pharisees how ill-conceived their rules are. They had placed themselves in the position of rule-maker because they thought themselves wise to properly interpret and apply the Law, but Jesus reveals to them something unimaginable. He doesn’t let them know who he thinks he is, he tells them of who he knows he is.
Luke 6:5 ESV
5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Jesus is saying that he is the one who gave the rule of the Sabbath and that he knows how to properly interpret and apply the command!
Application
So what does this mean for you and me? Why has God commanded that his people observe a Sabbath rest? What is Jesus teaching us about how to apply the command to reserve a day of rest?
Well, to answer this, we need to go back to the beginning and look at one more passage from the Bible. For six days God spoke everything we know into existence. Night and day, the heavens and the earth, the waters and land, and all the vegetation and creatures which fill it. Then the Bible says,
Genesis 2:1–3 ESV
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
After God had created everything that is seen, he rested. Now, don’t think for a second that God was tired and needed a break. You’d think too little of God if that were the case. Rather, Good looked upon everything he had spoken into existence, paused, and saw the beauty of the masterpiece he had created and he declared it all to be very good. He saw all the goodness of the life and cosmos he created that reflected God’s own nature and majesty.
And friends, if you follow me down this trail, we begin to approach the why of Sabbath. God rested in reflecting upon himself and God commands that we rest, that we stop, and set aside a day where we reflect with an undivided focus on the Lord. Where we stop from all the labors that take life away from us, to remember his goodness. To spend time with him such that the hope of Jesus Christ is regularly renewed within our hearts so that in the next six days of our labors, we don’t lose sight of the fact that Jesus is good, Jesus is loving, Jesus is merciful, and Jesus is coming to renew everything, just like he renewed that man’s hand.
When we lose sight of God in the practice of our disciplines of Bible reading, prayer, fasting, and Sabbath, then the rules just become rules and frankly, we are always happy to test the limits of a rule. Show a Texan a speed limit sign and nine out of ten will tell you that the number is just the suggested speed.
Jesus shows us that people are not for the Sabbath, but Sabbath is for the people. Resting serves a need everyone one of us has and that is to be with God in a way that has been set apart for him, to be renewed and rejuvenated by the Creator of the cosmos who has given life to you and sustains your life today. We are not supposed to live our lives as if our entire existence would be described by go, go, go or do, do, do with no separation from our work. Jesus is not a slave driver, so when he commands us to observe a Sabbath rest, it’s for our good in this way:
Resting reminds us that while we are limited, God’s love for us is limitless.
Inspiration
I know most of us in this room are hard-working, salt of the earth people. I know most of your stories and they all are rooted in a sense that you started life with nothing and everything you have and are is because you worked tooth and nail. So this idea of resting hits your ear and you categorize it as no better than a speed limit sign. It’s suggested. I’ve heard some say, “I’ll rest when I die.”
I applaud your efforts and accomplishments in your life and home. I applaud your efforts here at church. And let me tell you the heart of the matter of why Sabbath isn’t suggested, it’s commanded. It’s for our good. Here’s the bad news if you’re writing this off: you will never know the fullness of the life Jesus Christ is calling you into because you’re attempting to serve two masters. You want to honor Jesus with your life, you thank him for his cross, but the other master you serve is a master who works you to the bone and is never satisfied - your ego. Your ego pushes you and pushes you because your ego convinces you that your worth comes from what you produce and that your worth comes from what you can show for your labors.
Imagine, if you live this out, where you can be freed from the idea that your worth is related to what you can produce. Imagine, in those moments where you meet someone for the first time, that you can be freed from telling people what you do right after you’ve told them your name. “Hi, my name is Dan and I’m a pastor.”
Imagine… “My name is Dan and I’m a child of the most high King thanks be to the blood of Jesus Christ, who when upon the cross that I should have been nailed to, having taken the punishment I am due, said, ‘It is finished.’”
And for those who follow after Jesus, that finished is the gospel shouting, “He is finished being a slave to sin. She is no longer a slave to death. They are no longer a slave to ego.”
Action
And until you slow down to rest, to obey the command of our Lord, you’re missing the blessing of the rest from God that serves to remind us that while we are limited, God’s love for us is limitless.
So, friends, rest in Christ. Take Jesus at his word when he said, Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” You don’t have to get your house in order before you can rest in Jesus. When you rest in Jesus, then your house falls into order.
Trust that there is freedom to rest one day out of your seven with the principles Jesus is demonstrating here in these passages. I want to end by avoiding a list of Do’s and Don’ts, but permit me to give you some general guidance:
Identify a day in your week where you will start to observe a Sabbath and genuinely guard it
Take a bodybuilder’s approach, starting with lighter weight and increasing resistance over time. This means, start with a four hour Sabbath. In time, make it 8 hours, 16 hours, then a full 24 hours.
Despite what that poor preacher dealt with, it is OK to do things that you enjoy on your Sabbath, because those things you do, give you life. For some people, that might be an overdue nap. For others, it’s a vigorous hike. No matter what it is, remember that no matter where you are and what you’re doing, you’re in the presence of God. Acknowledge him in every way, give thanks to him for the provision of sleep or the trail you’re hiking.
Love others well on your Sabbath. If there’s an opportunity to do good for your neighbor, do it. That will be as life-giving and refreshing as a nap.
Give yourself grace.
If the holy God who you have offended with your sin so freely extends grace to you, surely you can give yourself grace, too.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. It’s for your good.