We have been speaking about being a church on mission and what that means. The church was not created to be inward-focused or static. God did not create the church to be a place for people to attend, to hear His Word and then go back home or to work and leave the gifts and talents He has given us on the shelf. We come together for teaching, fellowship, prayer and to be prepared and equipped for the calling He has on our lives.
Jesus commissioned us with the gospel, the good news, the teaching of Scriptures and as a church to take this gospel to every nation. We want to be a church that is going - not just taking a message of truth to people but living out this message in the spheres of influence He has placed us. A church on mission is one that lives to fulfill HIs mission - to accomplish His work on this earth.
I believe that we are a church that is on mission. On mission for our families, on mission for our community, on mission for the world around us, all for the glory of God. But in order to be a church on mission, in order to do the will of God as a church we need to be abiding in His life. Abiding means being in communion with God and resting in Him. So today I want to look at a passage of Scriptures that talks about what it means to trust in and rest in the Lord.
It’s interesting that today’s topic is rest - it’s one thing I definitely didn’t get at the Chapel Kids Camp this past week. But when I’m talking about rest, I am referring to different dimensions of rest which can include physical, mental, sensory, spiritual, and social rest. We all need rest because we live in a fast-paced world, filled with expectations and obligations that demand our attention and engagement. Life and everything in it, whether it’s church, work, university, family, friendships - carry unrelenting commitments and stresses. With the speed that we are running through life, we can often find ourselves like Jackson Brown’s song describes, “running on empty.”
But you don’t have to even be running at an insane pace to be running on empty. The primary issue here isn’t always the pace and demands of your life. The issue really has to do with the health of your soul (your inner life). This is why rest is so important, because though we are designed to be going and growing as God’s people and as His church, we are also designed for rest.
Let’s read Luke 6:1-11
1 Now it happened that Jesus was passing through some grainfields on a Sabbath, and His disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 3 And Jesus, answering them, said, “Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, 4 how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his companions?” 5 And He was saying to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
6 On another Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught; and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 Now the scribes and the Pharisees were watching Him closely to see if He healed on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse Him. 8 But He knew what they were thinking, and He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And he got up and came forward. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you whether it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all, He said to him, “Stretch out your hand!” And he did so; and his hand was restored. 11 But they themselves were filled with senseless rage, and began discussing together what they might do to Jesus.
We see that Jesus was walking with His disciples through some grainfields one Sabbath. What is the Sabbath? The Sabbath was referred to in the first few chapters of Genesis after God created everything in 6 days and rested, then it was codified in the Ten commandments in Exodus 20:
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work (Exo 20:8-10).
God’s people were commanded to keep the Sabbath holy by ceasing from work on that day each week. But what constitutes “work”? A major concern for the scribes was to define “work” so that no one was left in doubt as to what was and was not permitted on the Sabbath. And so they made a set of rules that would be considered quite legalistic to our modern ears.
In verses 1-2 of Luke 6, the act itself of plucking and eating grain in someone else’s field was not against the law (Deut 23:25), but to pluck grain and then rub it could be classed as “reaping” and “threshing,” both of which were forbidden under Pharisaic Sabbath rules.
So the question is: What does it really mean to rest?
When we see all the busyness around us we can feel pressure to stay busy and even feel guilty when we slow down or take a break. Even when we’re exhausted, even though our minds, bodies, and spirits are crying out for rest, many of us are prone to keep pushing through. It’s important to be productive and fruitful in life, to use the gifts God has given us and to give God our best. But there should be a balance of using our gifts to the fullest and then taking time to unwind and enjoy time to rest.
Cultural analysts have said: traditional societies placed greater value on the family than on work. In other words, your significance in life came through your family and not through your work. Your job was simply the means to support your family. Today it’s quite the opposite - there is so much pressure to attain significance and meaning through what you do and what you achieve which means there is so much psychological and emotional pressure around work to be fulfilling or at least lucrative. Therefore, there is less time to rest and even less ability emotionally to rest.
The need for a Sabbath rest is an ancient truth found throughout the Bible. Yet that principle still holds true today. Just as Eve was created so that man wouldn’t have to live alone, the Sabbath was created so that we wouldn’t have to live exhausted. There is plenty of research supporting the need for rest. Sleep experts talk about the benefits of deep and restorative sleep. But research has shown that deeper restorative rest for the soul needs to occur in order for us to really rest. In fact, it won’t matter how much vacation time you take if the underlying restlessness of the soul is not settled. The restlessness of the soul is what leaves us constantly fatigued. The Psalmist asked:
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God (Psalm 42:5).
Wise people give thought to their ways (Pro 14:8). We need to take a step back from our day-to-day responsibilities and examine the way we are living and where we will end up? That is why we need to be honest and face the underlying cause of our restlessness.
What is God’s purpose for the Sabbath?
It was meant to give us rest on the physical and spiritual level.
The religious leaders had condemned Jesus and His disciples because they were not practicing the Sabbath according to their Rabbinic laws. Jesus brought to their attention a similar incident from 1 Samuel 21:1-6 when David was running for his life from King Saul. David ran into the temple and took the holy bread (which was against the law) to feed his hungry companions.
The irony is that the bread (which no one was allowed to eat except the priests) signified God as the source and sustenance of their life. It also served as a continual reminder of Israel's dependence on God for both physical and spiritual nourishment. The bread symbolized the way the Lord meets the human need. People were not made for bread - bread was made for people. Man was not made for the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for man. Jesus is saying I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I am that source of nourishment and rest - the source of that deep rest of the soul. The Sabbath was designed to give us that holistic rest as is written in Hebrews 4:1.
Therefore, we must fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
What does it mean to enter His rest? How do we come short of it?
In the OT the Jews followed the law hoping that it would make them acceptable to God. There was always some rule to follow and some sacrifice to make, but you could never rest. In Christ, we find complete rest from the labors of our self-effort, because He alone is holy and righteous. He alone, through His perfect payment for our sin on the cross has made us acceptable and holy to God.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21). We can now cease from our spiritual labors and rest in Him, not just one day a week, but always.
This means that if we need rest on a deeper level, a spiritual level we go to him, but if we do not have rest it means that we have fallen short of taking hold of what we have in Him. It means we do not truly understand what we have.
The problem is not the presence of work but the absence of deep rest (Tim Keller).
In verses 6-10
On another Sabbath Jesus healed a man’s withered hand. According to the law you could only heal a person on the Sabbath if their life is on the line, if it was a life and death situation. Jesus said I am doing what I should be doing on the Sabbath which is something good and restorative.
This is what the Sabbath was designed for: to benefit, heal, and rejuvenate us.
Taking a Sabbath rest is liberating but it isn’t easy because it has to be intentional and takes great discipline to honor the Sabbath (Deut 5:15). It’s not a time to unplug from God but to plug into Him and spend time with and honor Him. When God delivered the children of Israel from the slavery in Egypt, He told them to remember the Sabbath. They were not free to spend time with God. We should look at the Sabbath as a gift.
Remember God has saved you, He has redeemed you, He has set you free. It means you are not a slave to your insecurities, your past, to your work, to your position, to your schedule, to your successes or failures, or of what people think of you. Your work, your friends, your position in life do not define you, this is not where you get your significance. The work that Jesus has accomplished in our life defines us. He is the One who gives us our significance and defines us.
Taking a Sabbath is a time of trust - we trust the sovereign God is absolutely able to take care of us and all that is unseen and beyond our control.
Honor the Sabbath - be careful not to over commit to those things which drain and overwhelm you. I’m not saying we shouldn’t keep our commitments or responsibilities but to handle our commitments responsibly and balance.
Build boundaries - know when to say no without guilt. Protect your alone time, and down time with your spouse, friends and family. We need time away from tech, from noise, - that is sensory rest. Researchers studied what happened when people agreed to block the internet from their smartphones for just two weeks. And turns out, 91% felt better after the break."What we found was that people had better mental health, better subjective well-being and better sustained attention." At camp, we had limited phone time for the campers and jr. counselors and though it wasn’t necessarily popular, they engaged in conversation with each other which is social rest.
The end goal of man according to the Westminster Confession is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Enjoy life and enjoy the Lord because He is good. Let’s pray.
