Jesus our Sabbath Rest

When you view the whole bible-story, you can't talk about work without reference to the Sabbath so this week we looked at what it meant for us to practice the Sabbath today - looking at Hebrews 4.1-13

3 types of rest
- Physical rest
- Relational rest (no enmity between loved ones)
- Spiritual rest (rest of the soul - contentment in who we are)

We all long for and delight in all 3 types of rest but we can’t get it. We are more driven than ever before we seem unable to live and enjoy the present (we either live in the past or the future). So how do we get the rest we long for

vs3-4: The Original Sabbath Rest

God’s rest is the climax of the creation story (not mankind). What does it mean for God to rest? It can’t mean physical rest (Isaiah 40 + Psalm 121). It can’t mean Relational Rest (John 17.1-5). It must be a different kind of rest. It is the rest that comes from finishing your work and being satisfied that it is good and nothing more needs to be done. And this rest was never supposed to end. Adam and Eve were invited into and enjoy God’s eternal Sabbath rest. That is what we were made for - our whole being to be defined by God’s finished work.

But at the fall all that was lost - physical (work became toil), emotional (there was enmity and murder) and spiritual rest (we felt ashamed and needed to cover up) - we became restless wanderers on the earth (Genesis 4.12-14.). We felt the need to prove ourselves, to cover up, to earn our rest.  And that is the sad story of the remainder of the Old Testament of the people of God trying to earn their rest but failing to achieve God’s rest and dying in the desert.

And so the search for rest continued and David Prophesied about it in Psalm 95 (Hebrews 4.7-10) and that rest was only found when Jesus turned up…..

Jesus our Sabbath Rest

Matthew 11.28-30 - he is the one that gives us Sabbath. As he dies on the cross, Jesus experiences a cosmic restlessness so we can be brought back into the divine rest. In Christ we enter back into God’s Sabbath Rest - and as what he has done for us sinks into our hearts, how much he loves and approves and values us, it frees us from all the other things that we run to to find rest. Verse 10 helps us understand this link - for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his - as we enter into God’s rest through Christ, we can also rest from all our work of self-justification (the need to prove ourselves).

5 ways you know you’ve entered into God’s Sabbath Rest

(1) You’re able to fail
(2) You’re able to say ‘no’
(3) You’ll not feel like life is a constant performance
(4) You’ll be able to enjoy ‘the moment’
(5) You’ll be able to face death with confidence

Practising the Sabbath Principle Today

(1) Work from a position of rest
(2) Rest is weekly (as a general rhythm)
(3) Extra times of rest are good
(4) Regular rhythms mean you can cope with pressure times
(5) Rest is active – physical, emotional, spiritual
(6) Rest involves stopping ‘normal work’

Reflection, Questions and Applications

(1) How do people practice the Sabbath at the moment?
(2) In what way has Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath-law for us? What does it mean for him to be our Sabbath-rest?
(3) Why and how does knowing Jesus as your Sabbath-rest mean you can do the 5 points above?
(4) What does it mean to practice the Sabbath well today - going through the 6 points.
(5) What happens if you don’t practice the Sabbath?