Rest in the Bible
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Pastor Tim Phillips Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we come here from all over your world, your creation. You bring us here from our lives at work and toil and now we come on the day of worship to rest in you, to hear from you. We pray that your Holy Spirit fills our hearts today, to teach us what your Word would have us learn. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Being that this is the dog days of the summer and, in summer time, we usually kick back a little bit. We slow down our schedule. We find time to do the things we enjoy, like spending a beautiful summer evening at a ball game or going to the Iowa State Fair. I thought it would be great with all of this context to look and see what the bible has to say about rest and how God has fit that into our lives.
When I think about rest, I remember the joyful attitude we had when we were looking forward to a vacation. When we lived in New Jersey , our vacation was coming home to Iowa to see our beloved family in Fairfield . And so this is how we'd do it. Saturday night, we'd pack the van. We'd have all our clothes. We'd have snacks. We'd have everything the kids would need, a TV so they could watch movies on the way, all kinds of things like that, and we looked forward to it with great anticipation. The next day was Sunday and I'd preach, then I'd do a bible class, and then I'd preach again another service and then we'd hurry home, change into comfortable clothes, get something to eat, and hit the road for Iowa. And there was such joy in our hearts as we looked forward to that journey and that time and such a sense of release as we began our journey across Pennsylvania and Ohio , Indiana and Illinois , and finally reaching our destination in Iowa. That was a great gift to us to have that time off, that trip, that occasion for rest and relaxation.
And God knows we need those things. In fact, as early as the seventh day of creation, God plans for us to take time out and to rest from our labors. It said in our Old Testament reading there was a time when God created and, when He was done with all His work, it says, “He rested.” Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day, God had finished the work He had been doing. So, on the seventh day, He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, which means He set it apart, not for common use but for a use intended by Him, a divine use. He set it apart so His people would have designed into their lives rest.
I think it's especially satisfying to rest when you've worked hard and you've accomplished some great project, some great goal, and now you can sit back and enjoy with satisfaction your time off. God designed that into our lives when He gave them the day of rest and the Hebrew word for rest in this passage is shabath and it means to cease and desist, to rest, to stop whatever you're doing and simply relax. God says, in our text, His work of creating, His work of building this beautiful paradise was complete and perfect. With regard to creation, He said, “It is finished.” By this, He meant there was nothing further that needed to be done and so He rested from all His labors.
As we look over these things and understand why He gave that seventh day, we see God's love and kindness in everything He does, just as all the creation was created good, so this day of rest was something good for God's people, because He knew that, in the world, there were people who needed to be told when to rest. He knew there were people who were driven and workaholics and people who didn't want to keep the proper priorities, so He needed to give them this gift of a day of rest, so we don't work too much, so we don't neglect important things, so we can be healthy, and so we can enjoy the work He has done on our behalf. This was the original intent of that day of rest.
But through time, through the course of history, through tradition, this beautiful gift that God gave was distorted and corrupted. That wonderful command, “Remember the Sabbath day,” became, “Remember the rules of the Sabbath day.” All those things you can't do, make sure you don't break them. So instead of a wonderful blessing, it became a tremendous burden and God's people were bound by all these manmade rules that were never planned or intended by God. And the wonderful joy of having a day off from your labor became twisted and misshaped and malformed.
The rules of the Sabbath changed the day of rest to a day of loss. People felt bad because they couldn't continue working and they were losing all the income they could have made on that day. It became a day of deceit. The Jews actually paid Gentiles to do their work on the day they knew God told them to rest. How would that be good for the Gentiles if God commanded that day for rest where the Jews were trying to find loopholes around God's command and God's gift? This day of rest and freedom became a day of bondage. We see this in the gospel reading today. Jesus and His disciples were wandering through a grainfield, and they were hungry and so they were getting themselves something to eat, tiny little grains and eating them. And the Pharisees were watching, and they said, “Why do your disciples do what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” “You mean it's unlawful to eat?” That's how crazy things had become. That wonderful gift God had given was now changed into some curse. Jesus takes this opportunity to teach the Pharisees, and He said, “The Son of Man is Lord over the Sabbath.” What does that mean? Does that mean He can just make up the rules as He goes along? He doesn't have to pay any attention to anybody else's rules? I don't think so. What it means is that, as the Son of God, He can appropriately disregard manmade rules and observe the Sabbath in a God-pleasing way.
And so, throughout His ministry, we see this conflict between Jesus and His ministry and the Pharisees and their manmade rules, especially concerning the Sabbath. We see this especially in John 5:1-6. “Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the sheep gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie, the blind, the lame, the paralyzed, one who had been there as an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned he had been in this condition for a long time, He asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?' ‘Sir,' the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.' Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up. Pick up your mat and walk.' At once, the man was cured. He picked up his mat and walked. On the day which this took place, it was the Sabbath. And so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath. The law forbids you to carry your mat.' But he replied, ‘The man who made me well said to me Pick up your mat and walk.' And so they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?' The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later, Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.' The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted Him.” Does that make any sense? Jesus heals somebody who has been a cripple for 38 years. How could anybody see that as an offense against God, as the breaking of some rule? And what kind of rule would it be from prohibiting you from helping someone who was sick on a certain day? Only a manmade rule, one not inspired by the Holy Spirit. In conclusion, Jesus says, “He is Lord of the Sabbath.” That means He is in authority over this special gift of rest that God has given us. He is Lord of this day of rest.
But not only that. It's much bigger than that because the Sabbath was a model or a sign, pointing to something greater, much more wonderful than a day off. The Sabbath points to our eternal rest in heaven. In fact, just as Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath rest, He is also the Lord of our eternal rest. Jesus was sacrificed on the cross for our sins. In the Sabbath rest, when all of the work of creation was completed, God looked at it and He said, “It is very good.” In effect, He was saying with regard to creation, it is finished. With regard to our eternal rest, when Jesus paid the full price for our sins and was hanging there on the cross, in His final breath, He said, “It is finished.” With regard to His work on our behalf, for our salvation, it was complete. And the beautiful paradise of heaven is now ours as a gift. As Jesus died, He paid for our sins. He rose from the death giving us victory over sin, death, and the devil and we are forgiven in Jesus' name, as we confess our sins in church and at home and wherever we are, we are forgiven in Jesus' name. We are saved eternally by Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Now you and I can sit back and rest and enjoy all the work God has done on our behalf.
In the bible, God designed rest for our good. For this reason, we should be careful to manage our lives to make sure things aren't getting out of control and make sure we get the proper rest we need. We should learn the things that give us strength, recharge our batteries, as they say, the things we need to function well in this life, and we should find peace in knowing that our sins are forgiven and God's eternal rest is the precious gift we have received through faith in Jesus Christ. When all these things are in order, our life will be more enjoyable and we will be more effective in the things we do.
Some of you may have a real struggle with this so, if this is a struggle for you, listen to the words of Jesus. “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” Take Him up on it. Heed His call. Ask Him to take the burdens off your shoulders. May God bless you to enjoy all the work He has done on your behalf. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Copyright 2005 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church |
