Rest Assured
Introduction – Why don’t we keep the Sabbath?
One “Frank & Ernest” cartoon shows Moses bringing the 10 Commandments to the people, and one of them says, “Could you make copies? We’d like to begin a loophole search”
If a Christian regularly broke the 6th commandment (Do not murder) what would you think about him/her?
What if they were constantly using the Lord’s Name in cursing, or if they had an idol shrine in their backyard?
What if they regularly broke the 7th commandment about adultery or the 8th commandment about stealing?
What if they regularly broke the 4th commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day; keep it holy, DON’T WORK!”
Anybody work on Sundays?
Not just at your job, but mowing the lawn or doing the dishes?
Do you know what the penalty was for working on the Sabbath?
We don’t have it here, but it’s given in Exodus 35:2 –
“Whoever does any work on the Sabbath must be put to death”
That’s the same penalty as for MURDER!
Of all the 10 commandments, this one about the Sabbath is the one which is most fully ignored – even by devout Christians.
Why is it that we consider the other commandments valid, but not the 4th?
Or are we all just in REALLY big trouble with God?
First, let’s look at what the Sabbath is
It was a day when NO work was to be done
Just in case anybody got the idea that the Sabbath was intended only for the head of the household, these verses go on to say,
On that day no one is to work—neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country.
Everybody was to stop working on the Sabbath.
When you think about it, it’s kind of a strange command!
Think of the significance the other commandments have to society:
Honor your parents
Don’t kill
Don’t steal
Don’t commit adultery
Don’t give false testimony.
It’s easy to understand how all of these things fall under the Great Moral Law of God.
But, “Take a day off”?
If you were making a “Top 10” list of laws – would this really have made the cut?
But God is deadly serious about this command.
In face, do you know what the penalty was for working on the Sabbath?
Exodus 35:2 For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death.
The penalty for mowing your lawn on Saturday was the same as for killing somebody.
Doesn’t that sound insane?
Why would God do that?
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like having a day off, but doesn’t that seem crazy!?!?!
What in the world is going on here?
I think we don’t really get a hint about the significance of the Sabbath until the New Testament.
Col 2:16, 17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Paul says that the Sabbath regulations of the Old Testament were a shadow of Christ.
That probably clears it all up for you, right?
Have you ever seen a movie that’s really trying to build the suspense,
There’s the creepy music playing.
The hair on the back of your neck starts to tingle.
And then you see, not someone or something – but just the shadow.
Maybe it’s someone carrying a weapon or in a threatening posture.
Because it’s a shadow, you can’t see who it is, you can’t see the details, but you can tell somebody’s out to get you.
That’s using a shadow to FOREshadow what’s about to happen.
Seeing a shadow of something doesn’t give you nearly as much information as seeing the real thing, but a shadow does gives you some idea of what the real thing is like.
So in what way does the command not to work on the Sabbath foreshadow Jesus?
First let’s look at a couple passages that might give us some insight.
Psalm 62:1 My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. NIV
Do you hear the connection between “rest” and “salvation”?
There is a similar parallel in passages that talk about the Exodus.
God freed Israel from slavery, and brought them into the Promised Land.
That is a “foreshadowing” of salvation – when God freed His people from the slavery of sin.
But you know that the generation that was taken OUT of Egypt was not the generation that went INTO the Promised Land.
The generation that had left Egypt rebelled and wandered in the desert for 40 years.
Psalm 95:7b-11 talks about the fact that the generation
7 … Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, "They shall never enter my rest."
When God talks about “my rest” – He is talking literally about the Promised Land.
This passage is quoted in the New Testament book of Hebrews – and the writer makes it clear that “THE REST” of entering the Promised Land in the Old Testament is a FORESHADOWING of SALVATION.
Hebrews 4: 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest…
What is the “rest” that believers have entered into? Salvation.
Going down a little further in Hebrews 4, the writer says:
9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.
Did you hear something familiar?
We really are getting back to the topic of the Sabbath!!
9 There [is]… a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work
The Sabbath was a FORESHADOWING of Salvation.
How does that work?
Well, let’s think a minute: How do you “get” salvation?
What is it that YOU DO to be saved?
NOTHING!
NOT ONE SINGLE BLESSED THING!
You receive what God gives freely
You receive something that God did ALL BY HIMSELF
It’s like this.
Many of you know that over the last year and a half I have taken up doing stained glass as a hobby.
Right now, I’m almost finished with a panel that I’m doing for my friend Ann in MA.
It’s a present for her upcoming birthday (which is one of those BIG ROUND NUMBER birthdays).
I started work on it before Christmas and have spent lots of hours working on it.
Do you know what Ann did in order to earn this panel?
Nothing.
She didn’t’ help me at all.
If she had helped me, it wouldn’t be a gift, would it?
It would be a joint project.
She didn’t pay me at all – not even for glass or supplies, let alone my time.
If she was paying me, it wouldn’t be a gift, it would be a job.
It’s cost me in money and in time.
It’s cost her nothing.
All this time I’ve been working on it, she’s been “resting” at least as far as stained glass is concerned!
She doesn’t DO stained glass!
But despite her absolute lack of work, in a couple of weeks, I’m going to just give her that panel.
No strings attached.
A chain to hold it up with, but no strings.
She has a choice of whether to put it in her window or throw it out the window, but that’s not work.
That’s just responding to the work that I’ve done.
What I DON’T want her to do is to say, “Oh, let me give you some money for that!”
I don’t want money.
It’s a gift!
I want her to just receive it as a gift.
Or what would be the worst thing is if she said, “Oh, I don’t deserve this! I’m not good enough! I just can’t accept it!”
See, I didn’t do it because she was good enough
I didn’t do it because she earned it.
I did it because she is my dear friend and I want to give her something precious.
Like that panel, salvation is not a joint project we do with God, it’s a gift.
He worked; He accomplished it through the death of Christ on the Cross.
The eternal rest that we find in the salvation of our souls is accomplished without any effort on our part.
In order to give His people a picture of a salvation that was given as a gift, and not earned by our deeds, God gave his people the Sabbath.
Let’s go back to Colossians 2:16, 17 and see if it makes more sense now:
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
In other words, the Fourth Commandment was given to FORESHADOW the salvation we are freely given in Christ.
Ephesians 2:8, 9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.
In the middle of LAW, there’s Grace!
For many people, one of the most confusing things about the Bible is that some parts (especially in the Old Testament) seem harsh and demanding and other parts (especially in the New Testament) seem filled with mercy and forgiveness.
It seems contradictory.
So lots of folks kind of shy away from the Old Testament altogether, because they want all the love and grace & mercy, not the law and judgment.
But here – smack dab in the middle of the Law – is grace.
The Sabbath reminds us of something Philip Yancey says in his book, What’s so Amazing About Grace.”
“There is nothing we can do to make God love us more; there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.”
We can only receive it or reject it;
We can only live in it or live without it.
We can only walk in it or walk away from it.
Conclusion
This morning as we receive communion, we are once again offered this free gift of salvation.
The invitation is not to simply take the gift and put it in the closet so it’ll be there when you die.
That’s not the kind of gift it is.
In fact, it kind of goes ugly and sour if you just lock it up like that.
It even gets pretty stale and smelly if you only take it out on Sundays.
The gift is to enter into a new life in Christ – a new life in relationship with Christ.
“Today if you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts…” as you may have in the past.
Receive the gift, freely given, of new and abundant life in Christ.
