Kingdom Living: Embracing Sabbath as a Core Value Disciples

Today we wrap up this series with message number 7 in the series on Sabbath. Let’s look at some of the highlights from this series and where we have been.

We learned

Sabbath (שַׁבָּת, shabbath):

It means that you STOP or to cease from

A day of complete rest from secular work following six days of labor.

Also the word used in Deuteronomy 5 for rest is

Nuakh [noo’akh]: to rest

It means that you have stopped but now you are settling in to the place where you stopped so that you can be refreshed.

We saw that the 7th day in Genesis does not have then there was evening and then morning on the 7th day because it is pointing us to the Ultimate 7th day of New Jerusalem with Jesus for all eternity.

In order for a core value to be a core value, we must not only live this out corporately (or as a church) but we have to adapt this at the individual level.

So my heart for us as individuals is that we live with the ultimate 7th day that is New Jerusalem for all eternity in mind.

We also so that God rested and God is Good so therefore rest is good.

Matitiahu Tsevat Israeli Scholar

Every 7th day the Christian renounces his autonomy over time (I own myself) and recognizes God’s dominion over time and himself or herself.

Keeping the Sabbath is an acceptance of the Kingdom and Sovereignty of God.

Week 2

New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition 7651 שֶׁבַע (sheba), שִׁבְעָה (shibah)

שֶׁבַע sheba

Seven:

Seven was symbolic in ancient eastern and Israelite culture and literature. It communicated a sense of “fullness” or “completeness” (Seven is spelled with the same consonants as the word “complete/full”)

Genesis 1:1 we see it has 7 words and the middle word is Et. Et contains the letters in it that are the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet aleph and the last letter Tav.

All throughout the creation story the number 7 is woven into the text and highlighting this fullness or completeness.

God blesses the 7th day.

May it be abundant.

May it be full.

May it be exponentially Complete.

God creates then he settles in to His creation.

In Genesis 1, you go from disorder through creation to order and you get to completion. Upon completion God places Man in Eden so that God and man can nuakh together.

That is settle in or enjoy the place God has created.

Esau McCaulley, Ph.D

Learning to rest is a skill. It is also an act of faith rooted in the belief that God is at work when you are not.

So on the individual core value we will seek to practice Sabbath as a weekly rhythm to confirm that God is at work when we are not.

Week 3

We looked at Multitasking and the constant need for more in order for us to feel full or complete.

We want to resist multitasking and pursue Mindfulness

Mindfulness

the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.

We explored two kinds of work listed in scripture.

God creates the Garden and then places man into the garden to work it or cultivate it and watch over it or steward it.

The garden is producing abundance for each day.

Trust and an obedient response to God’s will is necessary for humans to experience the ultimate Sabbath rest

The second kind of work is a result of the fall of man in Genesis 3.

The ground is cursed.

You will eat from it by means of painful labor.

No longer do you drop a seed and abundance springs up but now you will eat to survive by painful labor all the days of your life.

Now too exist you must work the ground and labor in it.

It will produce thorns and thistles

We saw from 2 Chronicles 26 King Uzziah who becomes King at 16 at that age is focused and seeking the Lord. But when he became strong, he grew arrogant and it led to his own destruction.

It is His desire to do it all himself and enter into the Lord Sanctuary that leads to His illness and eventually death.

We then contrasted this with Jesus be full and complete when he is tempted in Matthew 4.

Sabbath brings us to realizing that God is sovereign.

God is the one who causes the crops to grow.

Week 4

We talked about some practical things we might stop doing and things we might do for Sabbath.

Stop doing

Work

Shop

Technology

Take a break from kids activities

Some things to do

Bible Reading

Prayer

Worship

Cook a meal with real ingredients

Invite a friend over to fellowship with

Read a book

Take a nap

Go for a hike

We learned from the Israelites coming out of Egypt. They longed to go back to Egypt and they viewed Egypt and slavery as a place of rest.

We saw God provide for them in the Wilderness and wondering over and over again.

He gives them double on the sixth day so that there is enough for the seventh day of rest.

On the 6th day, you gather twice as much. So that on the 7th day you don’t go out and gather but you trust that God has given you enough on the 6th day to last on the 7th day.

God has provided enough for you that you can rest for a day

Just rest and enjoy it

Trust that God has provided enough

The seventh day is the day to trust in God’s provision even when my circumstances tell a different story.

Practicing Sabbath reminds us that God is our ultimate provider.

I have reduced the number of times that I log in to bank accounts and instead put my trust in God that he will provide enough.

Week 5

Pastor Jonathan Chambers took us to God’s call for rest on the land.

The past rest of the land, current rest of the land points us to ultimate future land of rest.

When you are working the ground, you are making it serve you. You are subduing the land.

during the 7th year you are to let the land rest and leave it uncultivated, So that the poor among your people may eat from it and the wild animals may consume what they leave.

Eden ideal in year 7.

The land rests and it works for you.

God’s good creation is not junk. It’s a broken masterpiece waiting to be restored. And even in the waiting we see Him actively using it for His glory and to give us a foretaste of perfect rest in the land.

Rev. 21:1-4

THIS is the ultimate Sabbath rest we long for! God is coming back to make his dwelling among us once again on the GOOD and RESTORED land that he gave us to care for!

We will finally see complete rest of the land with no labor or toil as God provides for us through it for eternity.

Week 6

Pastor Cameron last week

Luke 4 and Jesus declaring that the Year of Jubilee is here.

Jesus says the Kingdom of God is here

- Untie or break the cords of every yoke

- Share food with the hungry

- Provide the poor wanderer with shelter

- Clothe the naked

Also when we live out Kingdom Living then our names

- Repairer of Broken walls

- Restorer of streets with dwellings

Jesus came to set the oppressed free

Wrapping up the series

Sabbath point us to Jesus and to be His disciples

Matthew 11:28–30 HCSB

28 “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Sounds so good.

Anxiety is up, suicides are up and all of it directly correlates with the release of the smart phone.

The studies indicate that the smart phone has directly replaced Spiritual development in Students. I don’t think this is just in students.

Sabbath point us to Jesus and to be His disciples

Matthew 12:1–7 HCSB

1 At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain. 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!” 3 He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry— 4 how he entered the house of God, and they ate the sacred bread, which is not lawful for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests? 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent? 6 But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here! 7 If you had known what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.

Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary iv. Objections to Jesus’ Free Attitude to the Sabbath (12:1–14)

‘God is no longer primarily understood as the demanding one, but as the gracious one, the merciful one’ (TIM, p. 83).

Mark 2:27 HCSB

27 Then He told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

Matthew 12:8–21 HCSB

8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 9 Moving on from there, He entered their synagogue. 10 There He saw a man who had a paralyzed hand. And in order to accuse Him they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” 11 But He said to them, “What man among you, if he had a sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t take hold of it and lift it out? 12 A man is worth far more than a sheep, so it is lawful to do what is good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then He told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored, as good as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. 15 When Jesus became aware of this, He withdrew from there. Huge crowds followed Him, and He healed them all. 16 He warned them not to make Him known, 17 so that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 18 Here is My Servant whom I have chosen, My beloved in whom My soul delights; I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim justice to the nations. 19 He will not argue or shout, and no one will hear His voice in the streets. 20 He will not break a bruised reed, and He will not put out a smoldering wick, until He has led justice to victory. 21 The nations will put their hope in His name.

Don Carson says

A bruised reed he will not break.. that is, he’ll find a stalk in a swamp, bruised, and instead of snapping it off as if it is worthless, he will tape it up in the hope it will regain its fibrous strength and grow straight and tall in the winds.

instead of wetting his fingers and snuffing it out, he blows on it gently and fans it back into flame.

until he has led justice to victory

Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary v. Jesus’ Response to Opposition (12:15–21)

justice, a word whose scope in the Old Testament is wider than mere legal vindication, denoting rather the setting right of whatever is not as it should be, ‘the complete establishing of the will of God’ (TIM, p. 141).

A core value becomes a core value not because we put it on all the pamphlets or bulletin boards. A core value will become a core value not when we practice it on a cooperate level.

A core value becomes a core value when we as individuals live it out both as individuals

Sports teams can say all day long these are their core values but if after practice or games are over and they treat each other like dirt then the core value has no value.

My heart