Entering the Sabbath Rest
Notes
Transcript
Prayer
Today church we are talking about Sabbath Rest…specifically what it is, why it’s needed, and how we can obey the command for now and enter the promise for later
So I have a few questions for you as you turn in your bibles to Hebrews 4 this morning…
Are you resting well?
I am not talking about sleep…I’m asking about active resting…Being able to stop working…stop producing and find fulfilment in simply being a created being who is loved deeply by their Father in Heaven and then worshiping him. Are you taking time once a week to do that?
Because I believe on of the most important spiritual disciplines that is desperately needed in all of our churches is the discipline of Practicing Sabbath rest.
Are you resting well? Do you enjoy the Sabbath? Do you keep it holy, a day dedicated to worshiping God and enjoying Him?
Or does your life look more like this next list? This list was developed by John Mark Comer and it is found in his book , The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry… He describes what he calls the 11 symptoms of Hurry Sickness…
If your taking notes this morning…I want you to put a tick mark down for each of these 11 symptoms that resonate with your soul. If you feel one of these symptom describes you, then simply put a tick mark down. This exercise should give you a pretty good idea as to whether or not you are resting well… Ready?
The symptoms of hurry sickness:
Irritability: You get mad, frustrated, or annoyed too quickly.
Hypersensitivity: You are set off by minor things that can ruin your entire day.
Restlessness: You can have an inability to relax when you have time to slow down.
Workaholism: You feel that there's always something you should be doing instead.
Emotional numbness: You don't have the capacity to feel another's pain.
Out of order priorities: You feel disconnected from your identity and calling.
Lack of physical care: You don't take time for the basics (exercise, sleep, etc.).
Escapist behavior: You are so tired that you turn to distractions rather than life-giving activities.
Slippage of spiritual disciplines: You become lax or skip things such as prayer, worship, and community.
Isolation: You feel disconnected from God and your soul.
The point of this excerise is simple. The more tick marks you have on your paper…the more you need to start practicing Sabbath…the More you need to enter into God’s Rest…If you have 0 tick marks…then great! Don’t check out but listen for how you can encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ who do not know how to rest well…
Enter His Rest
Enter His Rest
1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” 6 Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.
Therefore- go back to Hebrews 3:16-19
16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Israel didn’t get to enter into the promised land because of their lack of belief…their lack of faith…their willful disobedience to do what God asked.
So therefore…the author says here in Chapter 4…since the promise of entering his rest still stands…while a promise remains of entering to His rest, we need to be careful that we ourselves do not fall short of it.
Now that is an interesting phrase…falling short of it.
We see it in other passages like that of Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
The author of Hebrews here uses the same greek word to describe that we can fall short of entering God’s rest…we can miss the mark of entering God’s promises for us…
2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.
What I eblieve the author is getting at here is he is saying…church we need to be careful and look back to the example of Israel in the wilderness…let we also miss the mark and are unable to enter into the rest of God…
So that leaves the question…
What is the rest God is talking about?
I believe this passage will point out to us the answer to that question is twofold.
The Rest of God is a…
#1) Command for Now…
#2) Promise for Later…
Let’s look quickly at the first one…that the rest of God is a commandment for now.
The Rest of God is a…
The Rest of God is a…
#1) Command for Now.
#1) Command for Now.
3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
Israel was a People Who Knew No Rest
Slaves in Egypt-
400 years of Captivity
400 years of Working
It would be generation after generation that never knew rest.
400 years of ancestors who never knew rest. 400 years of slavery. 400 years of fathers and mothers teaching their kids that every day we wake up and we go to work. We don’t get sick days, we don’t get holidays, we don’t celebrate festivals…we simply work.
It’s no wonder that God made one of the 10 commandments…
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
God called Israel out and re-established the Sabbath rhythm for them as a sign of their freedom.
Six days you shall work and on the 7th you shall rest, just like God.
Now it took 40 years of wandering around the wilderness for Israel to unlearn their habits and because of their disobedience they never entered into God’s rest of the promised land…
Sabbath became on of the distinguishing characteristics of the Jewish people. So much so that they started making rules on top of rules on top of rules to the Sabbath. So much so that by the time of Jesus, there wasn’t a whole lot you could do on the Sabbath that was acceptable…we understand this term today as Legalism. They had developed a system of 39 categories of forbidden things to do on the Sabbath, and then they would make sure that you didn’t do them…becoming Lords over their lives. But Jesus did something profound when He showed up on scene 2,000 years ago, and it’s something that we need done again today.
Use the Shabbat Talmud book as an example…
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.
Just in case your thinking that Jesus got rid of the Sabbath by doing miracles and such, listen to what He says.
Mark 2:23-28 NLT The laws against working were made for the benefit of people. Not the other way around.
23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
People need to rest and God knows that so he made the Sabbath so we can rest.
He didn’t make man just so the Sabbath could be fulfilled. He made the Sabbath so man could be filled.
Sabbath is a life giving practice.
In his book, the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer argues that Sabbath is one of the 3 things God blessed in creation.
He blessed the animals…Genesis 1:22
22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”
He blessed the humans … Genesis 1:28
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Then he blessed a day… Genesis 2:3
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
God blessed the 7th day like he blessed the animals and humans…be frutiful…increase in number.
Live Giving Blessing
Interesting study was done that found out that there is one group of religious people in the United States that lives on average 10 years longer than the rest of America.
Someone do this math for me.
52 x 70 = 3,640 days
sabbath once a week for 70 years and you will live 10 years longer than the average american!
Sabbath is literally a life giving day. One day a week where we stop, we stop producing. We fight back. We resist. Instead we play, we enjoy, we eat, we worship.
Sabbath isn’t a day off work…A day off work is not sabbath. Sabbath is different...
Sabbath is not a day off to do all the other things you didn’t have the chance to do earlier in the week.
Eugene Peterson had a name for a day off; he called it a ‘bastard Sabbath’. The illegitimate child of the seventh day and Western Culture. On a day off you don’t work for your employer (in theory). But you still work. You run errands. catch up around your house or apartment, pay the bills, make a run to clearfield walmart to go shopping, And you also play, go to a movie, shoot some guns, hang out with friends but all these things are not sabbath.
Sabbath is rest and worship.
God blessed it and made it holy...
What to do on Sabbath?
Ask yourself the following question…
Do I experience rest in this activity? Will I worship Jesus through this activity?
If not…hold off on it. There’s six other days for that. If so…then feel free to do the activity… That is Sabbath rest and worship.
Replenish Your Soul
You want to do things that feed your soul.
For me- It’s going for a walk in the woods, sitting on my porch, playing guitar, truly enjoying a good cup of coffee
It could be going hunting…not because i need to fill the freezer…no a sabbath day hunt is just a time to seek Jesus in his creation.
It’s taking a ride through the country in my truck. Its sharing a good meal with my family.
Enjoy the Day
- When God finished creating the earth, he looked at his creation and said it was Good. He enjoyed the work that he did and delighted in it. How many of us take the time to just enjoy our day. Enjoy the little moments.
Alabama’s- I’m in a Hurry
There is one day a week where I don’t set an alarm. It’s on Mondays. Because I enjoy sleeping in and waking up when I wake up.
The Sabbath gives us an opportunity to slow down and enjoy life. Enjoy our friends and family. To not have to constantly rush around feeling like we have to do anything. Now, this may take some planning though, but church around here starts at 11, so you may want to still set an alarm, and kids can often make it a challenge to get to church, but how many of us rush and rush until life’s no fun.
Seek God-
Jesus himself is a great example of going to the temple to be with God on the Sabbath, and he healed people and he did amazing miracles on the Sabbath, but He sought out his heavenly father first.
The Sabbath day is a day above all us for us to seek out our heavenly father and recenter our life on him.
Eugene Peterson Quote: Sabbath is that uncluttered time and space in which we can distance ourselves from our own activities enough to see what God is doing.”
Trust In Him
The Sabbath gives us the opportunity to trust God. To trust in his ability to provide for us not our own works.
It’s an act of willful disobedience to our flesh and an act of willful dependence upon God.
Practicing the Sabbath is a protest against the world’s systems and a declaration of your faith and trust in God.
And it’s practice for the future.
That’s why we say do you practice the sabbath…
A Command for Now yes…and we can fall short of it… but more than that God’s Rest is a Promise for Later.
Sabbath is an opportunity to practice here and now what we will be doing for all eternity!
The Rest of God is a…
#2) Promise for Later
6 Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
Israel was kept from entering into the promised land and the author is making an argument to his readers that we need to be careful that we don’t miss out on our promised rest. We need to enter into rest.
Begin practicing now, becasue there is a day when we will rest from our labors…
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”
Our encouragement church is to begin practicing here and now of resting in God through the practice of the command to sabbath, which will help us enjoy our God here and now and prepare us for the rest to come in the afterlife.
11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest…
