REC Jesus’ Sabbath Mission

Intro

As you know we have been in a series on the sabbath and the importance of it through the scriptures

Today we have to just jump right in because I have a ton to cover today:

I want to ask you to follow along the best you can, I dont want to lose you!

Please open your bibles to Leviticus 25…This is the third book of the Bible…

If you have been with us we are taking the first month and next week of 2025 to talk about the importance of resting with God…God in the creation of the world worked in resting…Its called the sabbath….and last week we looked at Sabbath and the command as a gift and as a means of liberation from slavery…It is intended to free us from the tyranny that we face in this world…

And this has to be one of the most ignored commands in modern Christianity…

The command to rest is the command to stop and to be with the lord…

So today what I hope to unveil is this larger plan of the Sabbath that not only Jesus talks about but I will submit to you Jesus is actually living out a Sabbath mission through out his whole ministry….

So before we dive into all that Jesus says and does…Let’s go to Leviticus

3rd book of your Bible…Chapter 25

Leviticus 25:1–2 NIV

The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord.

Ok this opens with the land gets to rest!

And any farmer knows this…that every few years letting the soil just sit there is actually really great for the soil and can help you produce more in the years to come

So Leviticus 25 is broken into three sections of rest, the first is rest for the land!

Ok so how does the land sabbath?

Leviticus 25:3–7 NIV

For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

Ok now there is a sabbatical year, based on the weekly sabbath for people now there is a command for all of creation to rest every 7 years

This shows reliance on the Lord for your food and trust that God actually will provide for you

But not only that, we have to remember that the sabbath ultimately is a glimpse of Eternity…

And what do you see in eternity? All things new! The new heaven, the new earth…So ultimately this is almost an enacted parable…

On the sabbath year you are living out this idea of a new creation

Okay what’s next?

Leviticus 25:8–12 NIV

“ ‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

So you have the 49th year which is a sabbath year, and. Then you add one more year…An extra special sabbath. This is called the Jubilee.

And here is what is so key about all of this, The day of atonement is when all of your sins are symbolically exiled out of the camp of Israel...

If we were to go back to Leviticus 16 and read that chapter we would see

That this day was a HUGE day in the life of Israel..

And this was such an important day because all of the sins of Israel would be wiped out in one fell swoop!

So the Jubilee is a HUGE reset...

So the first day of jubilee starts with wiping the slate clean of sin between you and God

There is an economic reality to the Jubilee…The idea is all of your property is not owned by you but by God…And the property you have is basically leased from the lord…So there is this great release of debt

A massive reset of wealth and poverty

But everything else is about you having a new relationship with people

Here is the idea of it.

Israel is God’s chosen people! The people who are going to reveal the character of God to the world!

So every 50 years God tells them to reset the relationship with him and with each-other

When someone became bankrupt in the ancient world, you didn't just go get a loan, you sold your children off to slavery

You sold your land off (Which was your inheritance and the inheritance of your children)

I mean can you imagine having to do this and thinking...

One day…The Jubilee is coming…This super sabbath that will make all things new!

For most people they would only see the jubilee practiced once in their lifetime…so it would be a highly anticipated day

On top of that…We have to understand the Jubilee as well as a practice of Kings!

Kings in the ancient near east would declare a year of their “favor” where debt would be settled

Where the king would let slaves go free

The Year of Jubilee was this incredible picture of freedom

All of this sets up this biblical hope…

So the Jubilee does a few things that are key and will matter the rest of this sermon!

It redeems the land

It redeems the property/debt

It redeems the slave

Now I wish we could read the rest of Leviticus 25 but we have a lot more ground to cover today

But what this sets up for Israel is so key

The Year of Jubilee embodied the ultimate hope of the Israelites: it began with atonement for sin and culminated in freedom from debt and the restoration of their ancestral property.

Ultimately it was one of the ways that God cared for the poor

And it gives the bigger vision of the sabbath

The sabbath isn’t just for resting…It is envisioning the day that God will make all things right again!

The Sabbatical Hope

The Jubilee is a sense that something is coming, something that will disrupt the order of everything

Something is coming that is associated with the day of atonement…

Something is coming that will change my life forever and my sins will be forgiven…

Jubilee gave Israel a sense of anticipation that one day everything would be set right.

So Jubilee gave this sense of anticipation to everyone! Especially for the poor…

That one day…There will be a new king…that will forgive sins and set people free!

And as we read the scripture you might be wondering…Why have I seen this nowhere else in scripture…

Like why do we not read about the multiple Jubilee festivals that Israel must have had?

And the answer is that in the Bible or any other ancient writings, its because we have zero record that Israel ever observed a year of Jubilee

In fact in the next Chapter in Leviticus God says hey if you honor me and keep my statutes then you will never fail to get a good harvest…

Basically it will be like Eden work

It will be easy to live in the land and you will experience the favor of the lord

But if you fail to honor me then you will be exiled

And you will be treated as your sins deserve…and four times God refers to punishing them seven times for their sin

Leviticus 26:18 (NIV)

“ ‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.

Leviticus 26:21 (NIV)

“ ‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.

Leviticus 26:24 (NIV)

I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over.

Leviticus 26:28 (NIV)

then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.

Do you see how God is serious about this!?

Now we have no record of any sabbath year or jubilee that Israel has ever followed…But we do have a record of the punishment?

OH YEAH…Biblical record and other historical records even

It’s called Exile to Babylon

And its exactly what God said he would do

Leviticus 26:33–35 NIV

I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

So Israel is punished and sent away to Babylon why???

Not just because they were disobedient

But because they never observed the Jubilee! God is giving his land rest however he can!

That was a lot! Are you still with me?

God is serious about Israel resting with him!

Now we are going to fast forward to the New Testament

Jesus is at his hometown and he is about to give what will be his first sermon that is recorded in the Bible

Luke 4:14–21 NIV

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Ok lets notice a few things here

One! This is a Sabbath day that Jesus is teaching in the synagogue

Notice Luke tells us that it is Jesus custom to go to church on the sabbath…If you want to be christlike!…Go to church! Make it your custom

Then he unrolls the scroll and looks for the place where Isaiah 61 is found

Jesus knew what he was looking for…

He was not playing Bible Roulette…He had something to say

So Jesus reads the section of Isaiah where it talks about this great hope of the Israelites, particularly what Isaiah calls “the year of the Lord’s favor” This phrase, every theologian, Both Jewish and christian agree, Isaiah was talking about the year of Jubilee! Because that is what Isaiah 61 is all about

Israel, the thing you never practiced will one day be experienced and practiced in the land

This is good news for the poor! This will set the oppressed free

And then Jesus frames his entire ministry with the idea of the Sabbath, but not just the 7th day…The ultimate Sabbath…Jubilee…

He says, TODAY! this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing

Jesus is absolutely declaring that this day begins the year of Jubilee

What’s crazy about this, this week I was reading a journal of theology where I found this:

Themelios: Volume 24, No. 1, October 1998 Luke 4

Troomé (1973: ch. 2) argues that Jesus in his speech in Nazareth was proclaiming a jubilee year (cf. Strobel 1972). He reckons AD 26–27 as a sabbatical year and suggests it was on the Day of Atonement (10 Tishri) that year (i.e. September / October 26) that ‘Jesus announced the complete restoration of the jubilean practices in Israel’

Here is why I quoted that: There are scholars out there who are crazy with calendars..These people did the math and basically said…

Jesus came at just the right time

Because it is likely that the day Jesus preached in Nazareth was actually the day of atonement and was likely the beginning of a year of jubilee

I mean the reality is that we can not know for 100% certain

But this little detail matters to me a lot and I’ll tell you why…

God told israel what to do and they just decided they were not going to do it…They just decided that they would live how they wanted to and not observe what God had called them to observe…

So what does God do? He sends his son, to be the living example of faithfulness…

Every rabbi knows they should have been practicing jubilees and they weren’t

So Jesus opens the Bible to Isaiah 61 at just the right time and day and says…I will now show you what Jubilees looks like

Now if you look at the entirety of Jesus’ ministry you will see this idea of Jubilee lived out!

Its almost as if Jesus is living in this new creation world and everyone else is still stuck in bondage and decay and Jesus is just stretching out his hand to everyone bringing them into his Jubilee way of life

I am just going to look at a couple of stories…So Luke 4 Jesus proclaims his jubilee and then lets look at Luke 5…

But almost every story of Jesus reveals him living out this radical Jubilee…Like people are living outside the garden in the sin of humanity and Jesus is living the Jubilee life that no one else is living and he begins to bring people ing

Luke 5:12–13 NIV

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Jesus released a man from the physical suffering of Leprosy

Jesus is letting this man out of the prison of Leprosy

He is giving him a glimpse of Jubilee

Jesus lived in a different reality than everyone else, a Jubilee reality, his ministry is an invitation to Jubilee freedom

And when you begin to look at the miracles of Jesus and all the things he says and does it is as if Jesus is living in a different reality than everyone else. jesus is living in this freedom…He is living in Jubilee and inviting everyone else into it!

The sick are healed…and you see this over and over again

The biblical way of saying this is that they are released from their sickness

Luke 5:17–26 NIV

One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

So one of the questions that people ask is hey Jesus says, friend your sins are forgiven, does it mean that it was because of his sin that he was paralyzed?

And the answer is we have no idea why he is paralyzed but what we do know is that the word forgiven doesn't nearly capture all of the entire meaning of the Greek word that is used here

Aphiemi (A-FEE-EMMEE)

You could also read “forgiven” as “released”

So what Jesus is saying here is that he has the authority to release this man of his paralysis

What is Jubilee? It is a release for the poor! It is setting the oppressed free…The lame walk!

See marginalized communities are coming to Jesus and what they are experiencing is this amazing new life…

They are experiencing the Jubilee that Israel never practiced

Here is another one

Luke 6:37 NIV

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Release and you will be released!

Live in Jesus’ jubilee mission to the nations…Do you get it?

To forgive someone is to practice the ultimate sabbath of Jubilee

Not only are you releasing them from the burden of their sin but you are released from the need to avoid them to hold a grudge to be angry…And I love that the word Aphiemi (A-FEE-EMMEE) means to release! This is what the Jubilee is!

Then there is this famous question that Peter asks Jesus

Matthew 18:21–22 NIV

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Now I hope this question hits you different after today’s message…Why….

remember back in Leviticus what the punishment was for the Israelites that didn't practice Jubilee?

Let’t put this verse back up:

Leviticus 26:18 (NIV)

“ ‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.

Peter thinks he is being very generous…Because Leviticus says that God will punish 7 times if his sabbaths and statutes are not followed…and so ok…Now that we have the messiah here, we should forgive up to seven times

But Jesus is living in the Jubilee! Jesus is saying you should release people from their sins an uncountable amount of times!

Live out Jubilee in your life!

Matthew 11:28–30 NIV

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

Only in walking with Jesus will we learn what it means to practice this forgotten command to practice jubilees

To forgive others of their sin

To help the poor and needy among us

Years ago an article came out about a small group at a church that had been together for years and one day the pastor did a sermon series on finances and just talked about the best biblical practice is to live debt free…Well this small group realized that they were all barley tithing and they were in debt up to their ears…So what they started to do is take an offering week by week and it started off really small…They started paying off each other’s debt in the group until the entire group was debt free….Then they kept it up and gave that offering to missions…Each of them tithed plus gave money to missions and were completely debt free…

They literally practiced Jesus’ sabbath mission at home! They lived in community in such a way that set the whole group free!

To live into Jubilee is walk in the faith, and the rest of Jesus to practice generosity, particularly to the poor among us

To live into Jubilee is to be on mission with Jesus in his mission of restoring the world from their sin and bringing them back to himself

To live in Jubilee is to forgive…

Maybe today you need to declare your own year of Jubilee!