The Spiritual Sabbath: Keeping The Rhythm Without The Religion

Final sermon on sabbath

What have we discovered in this series?

A definition of sabbath

Sabbath is God's divine gift of rest, woven into the fabric of creation.

Sabbath is not a response to exhaustion, but an expression of God’s completed work, God’s provision, and God’s desire for humanity to experience shalom—wholeness, peace, and restoration.

It is not merely about ceasing from labor but actively engaging in God's presence, delighting in His goodness, and aligning our lives with His eternal purposes.

A positive vision of Sabbath: What does it look like to cultivate sabbath

Carve out regular time for intentional rest and renewal. Use this time to reflect on God’s provision, pray, and engage in activities that bring joy and peace.

Cultivate sabbath traditions with family and/or covenant friends, such as shared meals, storytelling, games and worship.

Foster a culture of sabbath within the church by encouraging rhythms of rest, creating opportunities for communal worship and fellowship, and protecting one another’s access to sabbath through acts of compassion and advocacy for justice.

We don’t just want to learn it, we want to live it.

There is a danger that attends the embrace of spiritual rhythms…

there is always a risk that the spiritual rhythms become empty religious practice

Notice I said empty religious practice, because in a very real sense, spiritual rhythms present as religious practices

Coming to church on Sunday

Praying in the morning

My family has been praying the morning office based on The Book of Common Prayer

These are religious practices, BUT THEY ARE NOT JUST RELIGIOUS PRACTICES

The danger in preaching with any level of revelation is that humans will make a religion out of anything.

DON’T TELL YOURSELF THAT YOU ARE NOT RELIGIOUS

A series on sabbath is likely refreshing and exciting to those who already have identified a sense of rote religiosity in other practices of the church:

Sunday Gatherings

Praise and worship

Tithes and offering

Beloved, it is not that you are not given to religion, it's just that you may not be particularly fond of the religious practices embraced by the church of today.

Remember this: it is rarely the sin that you are on guard against that destroys your life and relationship with Jesus…it is the sin that you think you are not susceptible to.

As we incorporate Sabbath…and even as we seek to place a high value on other spiritual practices (prayer, fellowship, corporate worship, communion)…we must do so without falling into the trap of empty religious exercise.

There is a passage from John’s gospel that highlights this very matter. Let’s turn to it together.

John 9:1–14 (ESV)

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.

And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud

and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”

Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”

So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”

He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”

They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.

Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.

I want to preach a sermon called: The Spiritual Sabbath: Keeping The Rhythm Without The Religion

PRAYER

John’s account begins by highlighting something we tend to forget the longer we walk with the Lord: Ambassadors are here to serve, not to judge.

Judging is core part of basic human moral reasoning.

Judging is how humans protect our very faulty narrative about justice.

If you didn’t deserve it, it wouldn’t have happened to you.

If I don’t deserve it (as much as you) it will not happen to me.

But, we are not moralist, we are Ambassadors and Disciples of Jesus Christ

That human concept of justice does not reflect the realities of life.

That human concept of justice does not reflect the biblical narrative

All have sinned (we all deserve it)

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. (Psalm 34:19)

Our question is never “whose fault is this?”, but “how can I help?”

Our faith calls us to engage moments, not escape them.

This interaction taking place on the Sabbath Day, but Jesus delivers to His disciples an urgent Invitation to labor.

WE must do the work the works of Him who sent Me.

This is not just the Lord’s work.

The disciples are called to work as well.

Jesus is the light of world while He is in the world. And before He leaves in John 17, He will tell the disciples that they are sent JUST AS HE IS…that they are light of the world (as Jesus teaches in the sermon on the mount)

And this work is not something that we SHOULD do or that we MIGHT do…WE MUST DO THE WORK.

Why such urgency to do the work of God? Because night is coming.

There are several readings on this phrase, “night is coming”.

Some scholars say that it looks forward days that Christ spent in the tomb (no Jesus, no indwelling Holy Spirit…no light)

Some suggest that “night” speaks of the time when each of the individual disciples would die…night is coming for every one of us.

Another approach to the statement is to see it as more broadly speaking of times and places where the gospel of Jesus and light of His word is not actively proclaimed (a land with no gospel witness can be said to be in “darkness”)

My view is that there is no need to choose.

The upshot is the same:

There is a window of time in which we are able to do the work of the Lord…and we must devote ourselves to redeeming the time and doing the work AT THE TIME WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO DO THE WORK.

We cannot properly incorporate Sabbath unless we also learn to observe what one French theologian called, “THE SACRAMENT OF THE PRESENT MOMENT”

This is simply the idea that every moment carries the potential for a sacred encounter with God.

But, when the practice of religion overtakes our relationship with the Spirit we find ourselves trying to escape the moment at hand in favor of the moment we imagine.

Three Sundays out of Four, I find myself repenting before the Lord because I have been harsh with my children in the name of getting to church on time.

This happens when I allow myself to look past what God is trying to do in the moment when somebody can’t find their socks because I imagine that God wants to meet me here in the sanctuary.

But, God wants to meet me in that moment…perhaps to teach or administer focused discipline…or maybe to offer the blessing of mercy, understanding and forgiveness…BUT I CANNOT RECOGNIZE WHAT GOD IS DOING IF MY MINDSET IS TO ESCAPE THIS MOMENT IN FAVOR OF ONE THAT I CONSIDER TO BE MORE SACRED.

Our gatherings are beautiful moments and the Spirit of God moves powerful every time we meet. But, sometimes I shudder to think of the miracles I have missed because I was more focused on escaping an unplanned moment than engaging it.

It is the same with Sabbath.

Yes, you should build in rhythms of rest and restoration.

But, never forget that God is not subject to your plans…and always be sensitive to how Holy Spirit is moving in the moments of your life.

It is often the unguarded, unscripted moments that yield the greatest miracles.

Which brings us to my final point:

Spiritual practices should be a conduit, not a cage.

They brought the man who was healed to the religious authority because there was religious norm that had clearly gone differently from the norm.

And this is not to be taking lightly.

The arbitrary rejection of structure and norms is a hallmark of Godless society…

Jesus is not trying to teach His disciples to arbitrarily reject the norms and patterns, the rules and rhythm of religious life.

The Rabbinic understanding of sabbath allowed for acts of compassion concerning urgent needs.

This idea is argued in the writing of the Proverbs:

Do not withhold good from those who requires it

when it’s in your power to help them.

28 If you can help your neighbor now, don’t say,

“Come back tomorrow, and then I’ll help you.”

Jesus was teaching His disciples the true purpose of the structures passed down from Moses: they were never ment to constrain, they were ment to connect.

CAGE vs CONDUIT demonstration.

Both are structures

One is a constraining structure (CAGE)

One is a connecting structure (CONDUIT)

The purpose of sabbath was never to be a restrictive limitation on the work of God through His people. It was given as a vital point of connection between God and His people.

CLOSE: As we head into this new year, we want to be about doing the work that Christ has called us to do in the time in which He has called us to do it.

We need incorporate sabbath.

We can’t sustain the work if don’t embrace rhythms of rest.

But, let it be sabbath as spiritual rhythm not stale religion.

Let it be sabbath that:

Empower us to serve, not compel us to judge.

Help us live the day, not focusing our fear of night.

Not a cage, but conduit that leads us to Jesus.

A few ways for you to respond to this message:

Get saved:

Not call to our practices, but a vital connection to Jesus

THIS IS A CONNECT POINT

Get connected to Jesus

Get connected:

Join a community serious about rhythms of work and rest.

Make Ambassador Church your home.

Make the commitment:

Commit to the spiritual sabbath…

Incorporate the rhythm without religion.