"REST"
A sermon by Pastor John Glass, D.Min.

When the Apostle Paul claimed that he was blameless regarding righteousness under the law, (Philippians 3.6) what he was talking about was the Pharisees' rules of behavior, particularly governing the Sabbath. My, did they have the rules! For example (from the Babylonian Talmud) if, on the Sabbath, you blow out a lamp because you're afraid of the Gentiles or robbers or an evil spirit, or so a sick person may sleep, you haven't broken the Sabbath. BUT, if you do it because you're trying to save money, then you broke the Sabbath. Rabbi Jose (whoever he was) exempted a person in all cases except in regards to the wick. Huh? You make charcoal when you blow it out, and that's work. That's a violation of the Sabbath. Another example is a tooth ache. You must not sip vinegar through your teeth in order to heal the pain: healing is forbidden on the Sabbath. (Did you catch that?) You may dip your bread in vinegar in the usual way, however, and if you are cured, you are cured.

Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. (Luke 13.10-17) A woman was there who had been bent over for 18 years. Jesus called her to him, laid his hands on her and healed her. She immediately straightened up and began praising God. The crowd did, too, but the synagogue leader was indignant! "There are six days to do work. Come and be cured on those days, NOT the Sabbath!" he kept repeating. Jesus finally spoke. "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the manger and lead it away to give it water? Shouldn't this daughter of Abraham that Satan has bound for 18 years be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath?" The leader and his group were shamed into silence.
Jesus knew a lot about her, didn't he: how long she'd had the problem and why. He knew the Sabbath was a great time to do an outrageous act of kindness to her.

Going to the screen, what you see is one of the many churches in the city of Jerusalem. The fellow dressed in blue over by the railing is our guide: Joseph, a Palestinian Christian. What everyone is looking over the railing at (next slide) is this. It was once full of water, 40 feet deep! (Next couple of slides.) The Pool of Bethesda. Bigger than I ever imagined. There is even an underground section that stretches past the front of this church. This is where the story in John 5 took place. Jesus, you know the prejudices of the Pharisees about Sabbath. You know their rules forbid healing on the Sabbath. Why heal the fellow today? Why not wait until Sunday morning? I think Jesus probably couldn't help himself. He would have healed every single person there if he'd dared, but it would have cut his work so short he couldn't.

In Jesus' day there were five porches that had been built around the Pool to shelter the sick. There was a popular belief that if you were the first one in after the water was stirred you'd be healed! One poor soul had been there 38 years. (That's as long as I've been pastoring.) Jesus took one look and knew he'd been there a loooong (like Google with all those Os) time. "Want to be well?" "I haven't got anybody to help me. Somebody else always gets in there first." Maybe it was a good thing he hadn't, because if you flop into 40 feet of water and can't swim and aren't healed and haven't got anybody to help...you're gonna drown. "Stand up, take up your bed and walk." The Greek sounds funny here. Pick up your krabbaton and peripateo.





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The man did what the Master told him: he picked up his krabbaton and peripateoed...right into trouble. You see, it was the Sabbath. You didn't DARE carry anything that day; after all, the Commandment states emphatically, "Thou shalt not do any work on the Sabbath..." If your daughter had her friends for a sleep over the night before, they'd have to wait until Sunday to take their bedrolls home. The man walked (danced?) right into a group of the longest-faced
sourpusses he'd ever met. "It's the Sabbath! It isn't lawful for you to carry your mat." "Well, the man who healed me told me to take up my mat and walk. So I did." "WHO is that?" "Sirs, I don't know." As if those fellows didn't know. Only one person could do this sort of miracle.

Jesus knew a lot about this man. He knew he'd been there a looooong time. He knew why he was there: he told him in the temple, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so nothing worse happens to you." After Jesus talked to him he told the Jews who had made him well. They ripped into Jesus about what he was doing on the Sabbath. HIs response was, "My Father is still working, and I also am working." That made them want to kill him even more: for breaking the Sabbath, and for calling God his father.

When Jesus did these extraordinary miracles was He breaking the Sabbath? Is it wrong to heal today? You will remember, the 4th commandment forbids any work being done on this day: "Six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work..." If you consider healing to be work, as the Pharisees did, then yes, Jesus broke THEIR rules - but He never broke the commandment. "I always do those things that please my Father."

Have you read Mark 2.28? "The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." (If you've heard Sunday referred to as "the Lord's Day" don't believe it: the Lord's day is the Sabbath.) As Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus knew what was appropriate for the Sabbath and what wasn't. He knew the day was the perfect time for doing marvelous miracles of grace for those in desperate need.

Isaiah 58 is a chapter which ends with two verses (13 and 14) that explain how the Sabbath is to be kept. We are not to pursue our interests, serve our affairs, go our ways, but rather, honor God's holy day. Then we will take delight in the Lord. Punching the time card, doing 18 holes, shopping at the mall or Pick and Save, watching the Badgers: all this doesn't seem to fit the idea of honoring something holy, does it? Earlier in Isaiah 58 (verses 6-8) it speaks of pouring ourselves out for those who are hurting. Interesting, how the idea of ministering to need and how to keep the Sabbath are in the same chapter, isn't it? If we are not to do work on the Sabbath, if we are honor it by keeping it holy, what does that mean? Is it not the perfect day to minister to the needs of others, to commit random acts of incredible mercy and kindness to others? Jesus said, "It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." (Matthew 12.12) John wrote, "Whoever says, 'I abide in Him,' ought to walk just as He walked." (I John 2.6) Use the Sabbath day for doing good, just like Jesus did; the rest of the week you're too busy working anyway.

Hebrews 10.25 says we are not to forsake assembling ourselves together, even more as we see the end approaching. The Sabbath is a great time to worship together. If you're so busy you don't have quality time to open the Bible during the week for study, why not come early



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enough to join a Sabbath School class? Your soul will grow! Those of us who teach will do our best to make it worth coming early.

Not working on the Sabbath is something I want you to understand. We don't punch the time card today. No, we rest. However, there is a deeper level. Find Hebrews 4, will you? Quite a number of religious faiths assert that along with the other commandments, the Sabbath has been done away with: nailed to the Cross. The implication is if anyone keeps the Sabbath they are doing so for the same reason the Jews did: seeking to be saved through keeping the law, which is legalism. They don't argue about any of the other nine commandments: just this one. Hebrews 4 speaks of rest: God's rest. Verse 4: "For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, 'And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.'" This is what we are invited to do. Verse 9: "So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God's rest also cease from their labors as God did from his."

What are these labors? What are we resting from? During the Council of Jerusalem, in response to the Judaizers Paul asked, "Why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?" The circumcision party was demanding that the Gentile believers be circumcised and keep all the other rules. Continuing, Paul said, "On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will." (Acts 15.10-11) These labors we rest from are the things we do to be saved: our works, including being circumcised and keeping all the rabbinical laws for Sabbath that Paul was so good at.

If you're going to rest instead of work, then surely you have found a Savior other than you keeping the law. Precisely! No wonder Satan hates and opposes the Sabbath the way he does: it is a weekly illustration of how we are saved. We are saved by RESTING IN JESUS, not by working. We don't keep the Sabbath TO BE SAVED, but rather, BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN SAVED. We rest: in Jesus and HIS salvation. We wear HIS robe of righteousness, by faith, rather than attempting to weave our own from the fig leaves of human effort. We no longer carry the load of sin. We rest, depending on Jesus. What a pity: those who are breaking the 4th Commandment ("Sin is the transgression of the Law.") struggle under a load of sin, when they could rest.