Sabbath - We Were Made to Rest

As the people of God, we encounter a world that encourages people to work, work, and work again. When we aren’t working, we crash our minds on electronics and we rarely have a time to stop our lives and truly rest.

40 million adults in the US suffer from anxiety. Only 38% of them are finding any treatment. Chances are, there are people here today that suffer from extreme anxiety.

Often times, the home is the place where we struggle with resting the most.

In all honesty, rest is my biggest struggle as a Christian.

And yet, the Lord will hold us accountable if we don’t learn how to do it. Christians rarely struggle with giving good effort as much as they struggle with resting in the Lord.

When the Bible talks about rest, the word “Sabbath” is mentioned often.

Hebrew word meaning “cease’ or “desist” (Friday evening to Saturday evening in Jesus’ day)

A day of complete rest from secular work following 6 days of labor.

Genesis 3:1–3 NASB95

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”

Genesis 2:1–3 NASB95

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

God “ceased” from His work in creation after 6 days and then “blessed” the 7th day and “declared it holy”

In the 4th commandment, “a day of sabbath rest before the Lord your God” was made.

A standard was set for all men, women, children, and even animals.

Why? Everyone was freed from time to work so that the observer should accept the day as a blessing from His creator and recognize the claim that it makes on their own life.

Israel would look back on the Sabbath as a time of rest that God had given them from slavery when he saved their nation.

The Intertestamental Period

Damascus Document (1st century BC)

Can’t walk further than 1000 cubits. No drinking outside the camp. Can’t draw water from a vessel. No perfume. Can’t open a sealed vessel. Don’t help an animal during birth or out of a pit.

Book of Jubilees (2nd century BC)

Can’t plow a field, start a fire, ride and animal, boat, kill anything, or make war.

By the time Jesus came, the concept of sabbath was confusing for everyone.

Mark 2:23–27 NASB95

23 And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; 26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

Jesus said two things:

You religious leaders have lost the whole point of the sabbath. Most of the rules that you’re enforcing are man made and can be broken.

The sabbath proclaimed at creation was intended to serve mankind as a holy day, giving blessing, and observing God’s rest/restoration.

Jesus was not rewriting the law, but fulfilling and clarifying the original law described in the OT.

So what should we do about sabbath today?

There is nothing legalistic about rest. Rest is something that you and I need. The rest I want to focus on is counter to physical rest though.

We need to be getting sleep at night. We need to eat right and put good things into our bodies. Everything that we do is connected to how we serve God. But what about sabbath? Is this lost in our modern culture?

Making time for sabbath often involves setting aside a sacred part of your week at home or another sacred place where you can spend quality time and rest with God.

Scriptures

Journal

Music

Quiet

You spend time with God focusing on Him only so that the rest of your time will find meaning, purpose, and focus.

Sabbath takes faith.

To stop and rest before the Lord means that you believe in the God who prescribes it. You believe that His use of your for 6 days is better than your use of you for 7.

You are willing to tell everyone else that you need time with God than you need time with other people. This includes family.

People often make time for God if it works with their schedule. True sabbath always makes time for God no matter what schedule looks like.

Eric Liddell. 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.

To rest in God no matter what else is going on takes strong faith even when it’s not convenient to do so.

2. Sabbath must be authentic.

The pharisees criticized Jesus and His disciples for “working” on the sabbath. They were so legalistic that they couldn’t see the Lord of the sabbath right in front of them.

Jesus did not come with an agenda like the Pharisees. He didn’t even have to defend Himself. We don’t either for that matter.

Jesus wasn’t forcing anyone to worship Him. He simply came to be obedient to God by living and proclaiming the truth of His father’s kingdom.

That included how He spent His day of rest.

Telling a person to have a quiet time with God without helping them understand that God wants a relationship with them is counterproductive.

Truth be told, the more we know God, the less time we have to spend figuring out how to spend time with Him.

A relationship with God is not a checkbox relationship. He wants our hearts to be fully invested in Him and Him alone. There’s no room for anyone else in your relationship with Him.

Answer the following questions honestly...

Do you actually want to know His word?

Do you know that He hears you when you pray to Him?

Do you want to be close to God because you want Him or you just trying to please Him out of fear?

Does taking a sabbath feel like a punishment?

Based on your answers, you can begin to understand why stopping to rest in the Lord is such a struggle for you. Don’t pretend. Bring these issues straight to His table. Don’t live a life of pretending. Come straight Him with these issues so that you can take the next step!

3. A sabbath is only effective when our eyes are on the cross.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 4

4 Therefore, since the promise to enter his rest remains, let us beware that none of you be found to have fallen short. 2 For we also have received the good news just as they did. But the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith.,aa 3 For we who have believed enter the rest, in keeping with what he has said,

So I swore in my anger,

“They will not enter my rest,”,a

even though his works have been finished since the foundation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in this way: And on the seventh day God rested from all his works.,b 5 Again, in that passage he says, They will never enter my rest. 6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, 7 he again specifies a certain day—today. He specified this speaking through David after such a long time:

Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts.,d

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. 10 For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

The writer of Hebrews talked about the Israelites who had wandered the desert for 40 years and had experienced great turmoil because of their disobedience to God. The “sabbath” rest that they desperately wanted was deeper than finding a place to pitch their tent.

The writer proclaims that the one who hears the voice of the Lord, admits their sin and believes in Jesus Christ, the great high priest who justified man for their sins can make every person who believes bold and strong in their faith.

So many people think that the power of Christianity comes when our behavior in life changes. True believers no this isn’t the case. The power of Christianity comes when we have a true relationship with God based on being forgiven of our sins. When we hear the gospel and respond.

Are you ready for rest? Do you want to be able to breathe? You aren’t going to find that entirely in the church house.

You have a home that God has placed you. It’s not hard to find. God’s not hard to find either. He wants you to find him and rest in Him .

Rest in His forgiveness and live with enough confidence that you can stop once a week and truly rest.

What has to change in order for you to have this time to rest? What has to change in your home?