"Rest" OR "The Sabbath: God's Gift of Rest, Freedom and Purpose!"
May 23, 2009
Larry R Evans
Introductory Reflections
Perhaps you’ve seen the film, Mr. Holland’s Opus. It is a powerful story of one man’s life lived seemingly in vain, that is until he saw the real purpose of his life. Mr Holland was filled with ambition. His dream was to be a great composer but he was dogged with having to pay bills. In order for him to meet his financial needs he and his wife moved to a small town where he taught music to high school students. During his spare time he worked on his dream: to write his dreamed of masterpiece—his own composition or opus.
Unfortunately life has its demands and its intrusion put on hold for fifteen years his completion of his masterwork. One day when Mr. Holland was old the school board decided it was time for him to take an early retirement. The scene shows him packing his desk and he reflects over his time spent in this little town and, of course, on his unfinished opus. During these reflective moments his wife and grown son come to get him. As they walk down the empty school hallways, he hears a sound in the auditorium. He goes to see what it is.
It is a surprise!
Hundreds of his students from his years of teaching—many now old themselves—dozens of his colleagues, both current and former, hundreds of friends, fans, well-wishers, the room is packed. All have gathered to say thank you. Perhaps most meaningful is the orchestra made up of Mr. Holland’s students through the years. They’ve been preparing to perform Mr. Holland’s opus—the composition that over four decades, he hammered out and tinkered with,, polished, discarded, recovered, reworked, never finished.
They play it now. But, of course, he knows, everyone knows: his opus isn’t the composition. His real opus, his true life’s masterpiece, stands before him. It’s not the music. It is all these lives that his life has touched. Their presence represents what his own convictions and passions helped shape and encourage.
It is easy to be so focused on what we think is important that we fail to see what is really significant. The Sabbath is one of those easily misunderstood truths of the Bible. Many struggle with the Sabbath because of the way some have used and abused it. Good things can be tarnished when they become institutionalized. Then the day comes when the fog lifts and the real beauty of a Sabbath experience emerges. What a difference perspective makes. Meaning, joy, hope emerge. This week’s lesson only begins to touch the beauty behind this gift from God. That’s the way it is with anything that’s filled with God’s grace. We see so dimly the goodness of God and His plans for us. During this week allow yourself sometime to reflect on God’s special weekly gift to you. As with Mr. Holland, your journey to this point may have seemed in vain but in the end you will see God’s blessings have been with you all along despite the hardship and disappointments.
Reflective Quiz/Notes
1. A common characteristic of driven people is that, at some point, they forget purpose. [Matt. 18: 1-4] True
Mat 18:1 At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, "Who gets the highest rank in God's kingdom?"
Mat 18:2 For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room,
Mat 18:3 and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in.
Mat 18:4 Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. (The Message)
It is so easy when driven to succeed, when trying to please, that the real purpose behind what we are doing I forgotten as we focus on the mechanics of “doing.” It has been said that driveness erodes purposefulness. “The truly purposeful have an ironic secret: they manage time less and pay attention more. . . . the distinguishing mark of the purposeful is not time management. It’s that they notice. They’re fully awake.” (Mark Buchanan in The Rest of God, p. 78)
We begin with this in order to lay a foundation for our study about the Sabbath. While we strongly feel we cannot minimize the Lord’s command to keep the 7th day we must also keep in mind that is also important how we approach the time set apart. Does our purpose coincide with God’s or do we need to make an adjustment in attitude and/or practice?
2. We are holy. [Ezek. 20:12; Ex. 31: 13; 1 Pet. 2:4-5] True
Speaking of a vision Isaiah received about God, he relayed what heavenly beings were proclaiming,
Isa 6:3
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory." (NIV)
That is true about God but can we say we are “holy”? What is that makes something holy? For example, when it comes to the “seventh day”, as distinguished from the other days of the week Genesis says, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” It takes God to make something holy, but let’s come back to our question: “Are we holy?” Note Ezekiel 20:12
Ezek 20:11-12
12 Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy. (NIV)
1 Peter 2:4-5
4 As you come to him, the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him- 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (NIV)
We are in the process of being built into “spiritual house” but in that process God calls us holy. Why do you think that is? Is it really possible to be “holy” now while our righteous acts are like filthy rags. (Isa. 64:6). What does this say about our need for the Sabbath?
To be holy means to be set apart for a special purpose by God. We must not confuse God’s calling us “holy” with us being sinless.
3. How we keep the Sabbath determines if it is holy or not. [Gen. 2:3; Ex. 20:11] False
Ex 20:8-11
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (NIV)
We cannot make a day holy nor can we transfer the holiness that God has pronounced upon a special time to a different time. We can be unholy and disrespectful on a holy day but that does not alter God’s designation.
4. While the first day of the week is the memorial of redemption, the seventh day is the memorial of Creation. [Lk. 23:55-24:8; Ex. 20: 1-2, 8-11; Isa. 58:4-14] False
A common argument for worshipping on Sunday rather than Sabbath is because Christ rose on Sunday, the first day of the week. There are three important points that need to be made in this regard. First, how does the Bible tell us to honor the resurrection?
Rom 6:2-4
3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (NIV)
Second, the seventh day Sabbath recognizes God’s double claim on us – both by Creation and Redemption!
By Creation:
Ex 20:11
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (NIV)
By Redemption:
Deut 5:14-15
15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. (NIV)
Thirdly, there is no biblical support for recognizing the resurrection on one specific day out of each week without referring to the Sabbath commandment and doing so creates a serious theological problem of inconsistency.
5. How the Sabbath should be kept was an issue that led Jesus to the cross. [Mk. 2:23-3:6] True
Restoring the true meaning or purpose of the Sabbath was so important to Jesus that it ultimately led to His death. To be fair to the larger context there are other issues too but certainly the Sabbath is one of them and is placed at the end of a series conflicts between Jesus and the religious authorities as the last straw. Far from doing away with the Sabbath He sought to restore its original purpose and He did so in the midst of religious misuse of the Sabbath. Jesus announces that He, Himself, is the Lord of the Sabbath! Apart from Him the Sabbath loses its meaning.
Mark 2:23-3:6
23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
25 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Mark 3
3:1 Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
4 Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.
5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. (NIV)
6. Our weekly rest from our secular stands as a symbol of our rest in the completed work of Jesus. [Heb. 4:9-11] True
Heb 4:8-11
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. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. (NIV)
“The author’s references to the Sabbath shed light on his meaning of rest. In 4:4 he picks up the idea of God’s resting on the first Sabbath (Gen. 2:2) and carries the idea forward in 4:9—‘There remains, then, a rest for the people of God.’ Throughout 3:6a-4:11, he used the same word for rest—katapausis—whether he was denoting the Old Testament goal of the wandering desert tribes or the new people of God. But at 4:9 we meet a word found nowhere else in the New Testament or the literature of the first century—sabbatismos, ‘Sabbath rest,’ ‘Sabbath-like rest,’ ‘Sabbath-ish rest.’ . . . He clearly intends sabbatismos to be equivalent to katapausis, since he returns to that word in 4:10, but he wants to link the rest of which he speaks to the Sabbath. . . . The rabbis taught that the Sabbath was more than a ceasing from labor; it was a foretaste of the age of the Messiah. Just so, the rest that God promises Christians may be entered into now but looks forward to full realization in the presence of God when Jesus returns.” (William G. Johnsson in The Abundant Life Bible Amplifier—Hebrews, p. 95)
Concluding Reflections
It is often said by rabbis today that “more than Israel ever kept the Sabbath the Sabbath kept Israel.” The sentiment is true although it might be more accurate to say to the extent they actually kept the Sabbath. True Sabbath rest is so central to who we are and the meaning or purpose of our life. It is a time set apart to listen to God and we can do that better because we put aside our secular activities. We are not inclined to rest. We are programmed to be busy and to always be in a hurry. The Sabbath is a reminder that busyness can hinder spiritual sensitivities.
Several years ago Carolyn and I went to Hawaii for a vacation. To make it really special we both agreed to one rule and that rule cut across a habit that we had developed over years. We agreed to never say the word “hurry!” Sounds simple but it wasn’t at first. We didn’t know if we would ever have the chance of going back so we were tempted to see everything and do everything but that is nearly impossible if you don’t use the word “Hurry!” at least occasionally. We didn’t know how to rest. The discipline paid off. We see pictures of ourselves taken during that time and we look rested.
The Sabbath is like that. It does take some discipline because it has a pace all of its own – unlike the other six days. It is refreshing not only to us but to those who celebrate it with us. The important words, perhaps, for each Sabbath is not to “Hurry Up!” but to be still and listen.
Ps 46:10-11
10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.(NIV)
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