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Take a Break!
Then get back to work.”
~ Ralph Marston
Focal Text: NRSV True Disciples 31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
Introduction
“Rest when you're weary.
Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit.
Then get back to work.”
~ Ralph Marston
God had the concept of rest or Sabbath1 in mind from the beginning of time.
1Priscilla Shirer describes the Jewish meaning of Sabbath, according to Jewish scholarship as menuha, which means more than withdrawal from labor and exertion.
It is real and intrinsically positive.
It took at special act of creation to bring Sabbath into being and the universe would be incomplete without it.
Tranquility, serenity, and peace were created on the seventh day.
(Breath; Making Room for Sabbath by Priscilla Shirer)
in mind from the beginning of time.
We are introduced to the Biblical concept of Sabbath in
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
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We live in an action-oriented world!
There always seems to be something to do and no time to rest.
Yet God demonstrated that rest is appropriate and right.
If God himself rested from his work, we should not be surprised that we also need rest.
Jesus demonstrated this principle when he and his disciples left in a boat to get away from the crowds.
Our times of rest refresh us for times of service.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), ..
After creating the universe, God took a moment to rest on the seventh day.
If God took time to rest, so should we.
Rest has so many mental, physical, and spiritual health benefits.
As we embrace the principle of rest today, create your own care plan, to prioritize rest in your life before the business of the Back to School season begins.
life before the business of the Back to School season begins.
The Big Idea: God wants you to take a break.
Let’s explore the Causes and Consequences of restlessness to comprise our personal Care Plan.
Causes -Why don’t we prioritize our rest?
31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him,
Some of the Jews who believed in him claimed that their relationship with Abraham kept them from bondage.
Abraham’s descendents, they argued, had always been free (conveniently forgetting their bondage to Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome).
Since some of the Jews did believe, Jesus offered them more truth that could set them free.
Now he talked to those “believers” and no longer to the Pharisees, though that dialogue rejoins the text in just a few more verses.
When banks train their clerks to spot counterfeit money, they spend little time dealing with the counterfeit itself and lots of time focused on the characteristics and designs of genuine currency.
The Christian’s handling of error should be like that.
The more we know about God’s truth, the easier it will be for us to spot untruth.
The first error attacked in this section is the belief that a relationship with some ancestral figure (in this case Abraham) guarantees a relationship with God.
The gospel provides freedom from this kind of illusion.
Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol.
4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 164–165.
Causes -Why don’t we prioritize our rest?
A. Personal Pressures
B. Familial Pressures
C. Professional Pressures
1.Causes -Why don’t we prioritize our rest?
2. Consequences -What happens when we don’t prioritize our rest?
31b “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;
(1) Discipleship begins with belief.
Its beginning is the moment when we accept what Jesus says as true—all that he says about the love of God, all that he says about the terror of sin, all that he says about the real meaning of life.
1) Discipleship begins with belief.
Its beginning is the moment when we accept what Jesus says as true—all that he says about the love of God, all that he says about the terror of sin, all that he says about the real meaning of life.
(1) Discipleship begins with belief.
Its beginning is the moment when we accept what Jesus says as true—all that he says about the love of God, all that he says about the terror of sin, all that he says about the real meaning of life.
(2) Discipleship means constantly remaining in the word of Jesus, and that involves four things.
(a) It involves constant listening to the word of Jesus.
It was said of the eighteenth-century cleric John Brown of Haddington that when he preached he paused every now and then as if listening for a voice.
Christians are people who all their lives listen for the voice of Jesus and will take no decision until they have first heard what he has to say.
(b) It involves constant learning from Jesus.
The disciple (mathētēs) is literally the learner, for that is what the Greek word means.
Throughout their lives, Christians should be learning more and more about Jesus.
The shut mind is the end of discipleship.
(c) It involves constant penetrating into the truth which the words of Jesus bear.
None of us can hear or read the words of Jesus once and then say that we understand their full meaning.
The difference between a great book and one which is fashionable and of the moment lies in the fact that we read the latter once and never wish to go back to it; whereas we read a great book many times.
To remain in the word of Jesus means constantly to study and think about what he said until more and more of its meaning becomes ours.
(d) It involves constant obeying of the word of Jesus.
We study it not simply for academic satisfaction or for intellectual appreciation, but in order to find out what God wishes us to do.
The disciple is the learner who learns in order to do.
The truth which Jesus brought is designed for action.
(3) Discipleship issues in knowledge of the truth.
To learn from Jesus is to learn the truth.
‘You will know the truth,’ said Jesus.
What is that truth?
There are many possible answers to that question, but the most comprehensive way to put it is that the truth which Jesus brings shows us the real values of life.
The fundamental question to which everyone has consciously or unconsciously to give an answer is: ‘To what am I to give my life?
To a career?
To the amassing of material possessions?
To pleasure?
To the service of God?’
In the truth of Jesus, we see what things are really important and what are not.
(4) Discipleship results in freedom.
‘The truth will make you free.’
‘In his service is perfect freedom.’
Discipleship brings us four freedoms.
(a) It brings us freedom from fear.
Those who are disciples never again have to walk alone.
They walk forever in the company of Jesus, and in that company fear is gone.
(b) It brings freedom from self.
Many of us fully recognize that our greatest handicap is our own self.
And we may in despair cry out: ‘I cannot change myself.
I have tried, but it is impossible.’
But the power and presence of Jesus can re-create us until we are altogether new.
(c) It brings freedom from other people.
There are many whose lives are dominated by the fear of what other people may think and say.
H. G. Wells once said that the voice of our neighbours sounds louder in our ears than the voice of God.
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