Sabbath Matthew 11:28-12:8

During the pandemic, many of us turned to smartphones and screens to manage our stress. But as public life opens up again, some are looking for a different kind of escape.

At a cafe in Seoul, South Korea, called the Green Lab, patrons pay for timeslots to simply sit and do nothing. That’s right--they pay to do nothing. The Green Lab requires that no one is allowed to speak and all phones be turned off. A large glass window looks out onto a green forest and diffusers around the cafe release pleasing aromas. And every day, the three time slots are completely booked.

What we call “zoning out,” Koreans call “hitting mung”--allowing their minds to be completely blank.

A customer in her early thirties says, “I’ve been so tired, and I don’t even have time to space out. After work, I go home, and I have to do housework, and then I barely have 30 minutes to an hour before I need to sleep. I spend that time on my phone. So, with a space like this, I can actually focus on taking a break.”

-The life of a disciple of Jesus must include Sabbath rest.

Sabbath Rest is...

I. An Invitation v. 28

When we pick up our passage, Jesus gives His disciples an important word of instruction about rest: an invitation from Him to rest

The words that Jesus shares are more than an excuse to sit down and take a break

They are an invitation to experience the restoration of body, mind, and most importantly of soul that is necessary to live a life of fruitfulness

I think two things are crucial to understand here:

First, He sees your weariness and understands it even better than you do yourself; you can try to convince yourself that you are ok, but apart from the rest that He offers, you’re not

Second, the only way that you can experience this kind of rest is in Him; with a heart of mercy, He invites you to Himself to give you what only He can give

His rest is there, if you will come to Him!

The Lord gave us a command: “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” We were commanded to do no work on that day. In the hands of the theologians, that became 157 double-sided pages of explanation. In the Words of Jesus, it became a simple invitation: “Come to me and I will give you rest.” We must seek that rest that only He can give!

II. A Decision vv. 29-30

Next, we see that Sabbath rest involves a faith decision: this is the part that we struggle with so much

To experience the Sabbath rest of Jesus, we must take off the yoke of our own authority or the world’s authority

When we try to live in a way that meets the standards of the world outside, or even our own demands, we find a fruitless dead end

Make no mistake about it: if you are going to experience Sabbath rest, you have to say no to a way of living that is familiar, comfortable, and readily recognizable in the world around you.

We must instead accept the yoke of His authority, live His way and in step with Him

This is difficult for us because it is a supreme act of faith that we will find Jesus to be:

Wise- able to lead us better than we would lead ourselves

Gentle- leading us at a pace that is for our own good, never too fast and never too slow; We trust that He will sympathize with our weaknesses

Gracious- leading us in a way that is a blessing to us and brings us the abundant life He has promised in place of the “good life” found all around us

Our greatest fear is this: If I turn my life over to Jesus, I may come up empty. I might miss out on something good or things might spin out of control. Intentional rest is an act of faith that trusts God to be God and leaves Him in charge!

When I first moved to North Alabama, I was afraid that I was moving to a wasteland. Through our first Winter, I was colder than I thought possible! It took forever for Spring to come, much less Summer, and I thought that nothing would be able to grow. Imagine my shock when the shrubs, the bulbs, and the grass grew faster and better than anywhere I’d ever lived before. It turned out that the secret was the rest. The long cold season made the plants dormant long enough so that the growing season could be exceptionally fruitful! God is not wasting the time that seems useless to us.

III. A Command vv. 1-2

Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees and they show us two sides of the Sabbath coin

They get it wrong and we can easily become like Pharisees, degrading the Sabbath to a set of rules and regulations

They speak where the Scripture is silent and they make rest a horrific burden and a source of fear; this notion is opposite of Sabbath rest

However, a lot of us fall into a different trap, we ignore the idea of Sabbath completely

The Pharisees understood something that we need to understand: Sabbath is a command from the Lord

This is a matter of obedience and disobedience to the Lord

When we look at the history of God’s people, we find that their failure to honor the Sabbath is the source of all sorts of horrific problems in the life of the nation

We cannot believe that we can ignore the Lord on this and be aligned with Him

You are missing out on the life that God has for you because you refuse to pause the busyness of your life to experience the rest that He would give you!

There's no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it. In our whole life-melody the music is broken off here and there by 'rests,' and we foolishly think we have come to the end of the tune...not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the 'rests.' They are not to be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the keynote. If we sadly say to ourselves, 'There is no music in a rest,' let us not forget that there is the making of music in it.

IV. A Person vv. 3-8

Jesus addresses the issue with the Pharisees by going back to some Old Testament examples. He makes a few things clear:

Sabbath is not about rules, but restoration- the Pharisees have come up with a lot of “better-than-good” rules to insure that people don’t break God’s Law in regards to Sabbath, but that was never the point. It was always about experiencing soul restoration not about adding more burdens to your life

Sabbath is about receiving, not producing- David “breaks the rules” but he is honored because his actions are life-giving to himself and others

Sabbath is about communion with God and Man- The work of the priests make it possible for the people to be united with God

We find Sabbath when we honor the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ

When we are walking in step with Him, living in His Word and by prayer, led by the Spirit, we will be obeying the One who has the authority over the Sabbath

Further than that, we will be living in alignment with the only One who can give Sabbath rest!

If you want to have Sabbath rest, you must find it in Him

Sabbath is that ancient idea and practice of intentional rest that has long been discarded by much of the church and our world. Sabbath is not new. Sabbath is just new to us. Historically, Christians have kept some form or another of the Sabbath for some two thousand years.

But it has largely been forgotten by the church, which has uncritically mimicked the rhythms of the industrial and success-obsessed West. The result? Our road – weary, exhausted churches have largely failed to integrate Sabbath into their lives as vital elements of Christian discipleship. It is not as though we do not love God — we love God deeply. We just do not know how to sit with God anymore.

We have come to know Jesus only as the Lord of the harvest, forgetting he is the Lord of the Sabbath as well.