Have a KitKat

So imagine you’re out on a Saturday and you decide to do some work. Mow the yard for a few bucks, work on your jump shot, go to the batting cage, clean the house, baby sit. And while you’re doing it a group of old men shows up and starts yelling that you need to be stoned! Not the kind they do in Colorado, but the kind where people throw rocks at you!

This was something that might have happened thousands and thousands of years ago because of a Jewish law.

Who can tell me what the fourth commandment is?

Give a KitKat to whoever gets it right.

We’re looking at a story tonight where Jesus uses this fourth commandment to teach a very important lesson. Jesus offers us rest from all our exhausting work to be good enough. And we’re all trying to be good enough. In different ways for different people… stretch this out some to make it personal.

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What is the Sabbath?

This is probably the first question many of you have after hearing this story. And we need to understand this to understand this Jesus story.

So what is it?

Exodus 20:8–11 HCSB

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

Did God need to rest?

No! Absolutely not. He was not tired! He’s God! He doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t need rest. So why would he rest? To set an example for his creation!

I think God knew He was finished with his creation so He stopped his creative work and enjoyed it.

I also think He was setting an example for humanity, a model for us of work, work, work, and rest. Most of humanity will work to their own detriment in pride… We want more...

And when we busy ourselves like this, we don’t leave time to seek and worship God. This can even happen to me!

This also forces us to rely on Him. God is good in sneaky ways like this. He reminds us of our need for him in these annoying ways!

We have to sleep. Can’t live without it! He can though. He’s greater than we our and we should lean on Him!

He called his people to take regular rest, and that meant that they might lose business opportunity, but they were to trust Him in that anyway.

As proof that humanity will work ourselves to death and need this command, how many businesses are closed for a day of the week now?

In Deuteronomy God tells his people it is also a reminder of the slavery He rescued them from in Egypt.

The Sabbath was also intended to give his people a time to zero in on him and focus on worshipping God.

I think another reason God gave his people the Sabbath was as a sign of something greater to come, but we’ll get into that in a few minutes!

So now that we know what the Sabbath is, what is the point of this story of Jesus?

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and offers his rest in place of our work to be enough.

Also, the weekly Sabbath day was Saturday! Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, to be exact! So what did they do?

What the Sabbath Day was.

This was an important sign of the covenant (or agreement) between God and Israel.

Exodus 31:17 HCSB

It is a sign forever between Me and the Israelites, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.”

God gave some regulations for the Sabbath.

They couldn’t gather manna or gather wood. They couldn’t do their normal, every day work, they couldn’t carry a load.

And because of what the Sabbath represented, it was not taken lightly if it was broken, or profaned is the word used often in the Old Testament.

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So here is what ended up happening with the Sabbath, what Jesus is getting on to the Pharisees about. They did to it what they did to so much of God’s law and made their own law around it and used it to put themselves up on a pedestal. They added so many regulations to it that it actually became work to observe the law to rest!

They made rules about how much weight made something a load they weren’t allowed to carry.

They made rules about how far they could carry something.

They were only allowed to travel 3,000 feet from their home. BUT! If they had food somewhere, that was an extension of their home, so they could travel another 3,000 feet from there!

In their pride, the Pharisees were trying so hard to be sinless that it led them into more sin. They were trying to earn their righteousness instead of throwing their hands up and calling out to God in humility. Acknowledging that they couldn’t do it and they needed Him.

They did this with the whole law. We still try to do it today.

I’ll be good enough…

How do you know?

I won’t sin too much...

How do you know?

I grew up doing water sports, I’ve told y’all about some of this before. There was one time when it was just me and my friends putting the boat into the water, well a couple times actually, but we put it in the water… bilge starts running and won’t stop, realize that the plug at the back of the boat wasn’t in.

This is what trying to be good enough is like. No matter how much water that bilge pump spit out of the side of the boat, it was taking on water way to fast to be ok. No matter how good we are, how many sins we don’t commit, the amount of righteousness we get is nothing compared to the sin flooding in. In fact, here’s the gross truth...

Isaiah 64:6 HCSB

All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

We have to humble ourselves and realize that no matter how much good work we do, it will never be enough. We are saved by grace, through faith. Not by works. You can not earn a relationship with God. You can not earn your way to Heaven. You must humble yourself, acknowledge your need for Jesus and surrender to Him! God was trying to tell his people this through the Sabbath. He’s trying to tell us still to rest in Jesus’ work for us. That’s what the Sabbath day is now.

What the Sabbath day is now.

No where in the New Testament are we told to observe the Sabbath day. A lot of people think Sunday is the new Sabbath day, but all the Bible says is that the church gathered on Sunday to worship. It doesn’t tell us we aren’t allowed to work on Sunday.

It does say in the New Testament that Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law in the place of his people and the work is done.

What did Jesus say on the cross as He was dying?

Hebrews 10:11–14 HCSB

Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.

The most important meaning of this principle of Sabbath today is resting in the completed work of Christ and not in legalism. Not working for our salvation, because it’s impossible.

But there is still a physical aspect to the Sabbath principle, because humanity still works to death! We need rest!

“No rest for the best”? No, forget that! How many off nights has LeBron had this year?

This world tells us to keep going and never take a break so we can be the best. That’s not a mindset the Holy Spirit would give us. That’s not relying on God’s provision.

Don’t get me wrong, we need to work and work hard.

Proverbs 6:9–11 HCSB

How long will you stay in bed, you slacker? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest, and your poverty will come like a robber, your need, like a bandit.

But we have to mix rest in with it as well. Even Jesus rested, we see that in Mark 6.

This looks different for everyone. I hate mowing the yard, but for some people that’s rest. I love playing sports, but for some people that’s work. But we have to have periods of rest mixed in with our work.

That means that you have a divine directive to give yourself a break if you haven’t been! In the midst of practice, rehearsal, studying, making grades, work; you must make time for rest and for seeking the Lord.

I work out in the mornings. I do HIIT workouts, at least that’s how I categorize it on my fancy watch. High Intensity Interval Training. The idea is you work really hard for a minute or two and then rest for a second. I get worn out really quickly in those intervals of work, I need the rest to get a quick recharge. Sometimes I even need to seek the Lord in the little breaks. “Oh God! Oh sweet Jesus help me!”

This is a microcosm of our lives. We’ve got to have rest to keep going. To make sure we take time to worship and seek God.

And this helps us to look forward to ultimate Sabbath.

What Sabbath will be.

Sabbath still is pointing us forward. It’s pointing us forward to ultimate rest in eternity now. With God forever.

You know that feeling of peace after you finish something you’ve been working really hard at for a long time? Imagine never losing that feeling.

Not that we won’t work in heaven, but that nervousness about it will be gone and there will be only peace.

That rest lies ahead and we look forward to it.

Hebrews 4:9–11 HCSB

Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His. Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:9-11

Hebrews 4:9–11 HCSB

This is the scene we have described of the place where we will rest for eternity.

Revelation 22:1–4 HCSB

Then he showed me the river of living water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the broad street of the city. The tree of life was on both sides of the river, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His slaves will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.

That sounds good, I’ll have that!

So Christian, rest in the work Christ has done for your soul, and be obedient and trust God when He commands us to make physical rest for the purpose of recharge and seeking Him a regular part of our lives.

If you are not a Christian, Jesus offers you rest from trying to be good enough in your life. He offers you everlasting rest and peace and the hurt and pain sin brings in this world!

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