Apostles Church

Sabbath Rest Part 2.

Deut 5:12-15.

God has commanded that rest be woven into the rhythm of our lives. He calls this rest Sabbath and it is part of the good life.  It is a day set aside that is consecrated for a special purpose; it is sanctified time, time set apart. It is time that is to be treated differently than any other time.
The Greeks have two words for time. Chronos and Kairos. Chronos is time as a measurement; time ticking away; marching on. We get our word chronology from this word. This kind of time is always pressing upon us, breathing down our necks, making demands of us; in one way or another we all seem to be serving time. There are some differing opinions on this, but Chronos was considered a member of the Greek Pantheon – sometimes called Cronus or Saturn. This nasty deity cannibalized his children. Goya, the Spanish artist depicted him in the painting, “Chronos (or Saturn) devouring his Children.” Chronos consumes our lives, whittles us down, makes us gray and slow, eats away at us, cannibalizes our lives. The clock keeps ticking and every tick is a demand. Kairos is differet. Kairos is a special season of time, a unique moment, time that is meaningful. Time set apart. Chronos is time as a demand; kairos is time as an opportunity. Chronos is time eating away our lives; Kairos is time restoring our lives, facilitating life. Chronos has duty written all over it; Kairos has delight written all over it. Sabbath is kairos – special, sacred, set apart time.
We need, and are commanded to have, sanctified time, set apart time, consecrated time – It is a day, every seventh day, sundown to sundown. Early Church observed the Lord’s Day (Sunday), but the exact day is not the key, but a day where we lay aside the demands that chronos makes upon us, the tyranny of the urgent, and enter intentionally into a season of rest where we cease from our work, all work, and we rest and we enjoy God and his good gifts. And God commands this, just like he commands that we have no other gods, we don’t murder and we remain faithful to our spouse. He put rest in His Top 10. It is a Gift, but it is not an optional one. God gives it as a gift, but commands his people to receive this gift and to keep this rhythm of rest in their lives.   

It humbles and heals us.

The call to Sabbath is acknowledge that God reigns over his creation, not us; God is the source and sustainer of all things. We are not invincible; We are not indispensable. God is necessary; we are supplemental. If we rest, He continues to accomplish His purpose. We are frail and need to recover – Cease from the Necessary and Engage in what breathes life into you.

It orients our lives toward God.

Mark Bittman NY Times article talks about a “Secular Sabbath,” an intentional day disconnecting and unplugging from everything technological so as to rest, think, read, play and enjoy people. There is a movement in this direction, helping people power down for a day to recover their humanity. There is an organization in the Northwest called SparkNW that puts on clinics to help people break away from their techno-addictions – secular Sabbath. But there is no spiritual framework. The passage says that the seventh day is a Sabbath day (a day of rest) to the Lord. It is a day tenaciously directed God-ward. A day where we acknowledge that God is God and has the right to order our days, our week, our lives. On Sabbath, we give our attention to God in a more focused and sustained way. For six days our attention is divvied up, and so many things lay claim to our minds and our hearts. But this day is different. This is the day to recalibrate. Sabbath is an invitation Godward. We give the best of our hearts and minds to Him. We intentionally pause, carve out extended time to listen to God, getting quiet enough to experience him press gently upon our thoughts and perceptions and speak to us. We can learn something from the Secular Sabbath movement: consider limiting or eliminating your TV, internet, and phone usage and embracing quiet. Sabbath nurtures stillness and increases your capacity for hearing and experiencing God. Mark Buchanan: “Some knowing is never pursued, only received.” Sabbath is a intentional time of receiving from the Lord. There are rooms in the heart of God you have never walked into because they are only open to you during times of stillness and rest. As you observe Sabbath, pray, read the Scripture or a devotional book, take a contemplative walk, sit in solitude and silence; drop into the sanctuary of a beautiful church in our city. Make this day different from all other days. Again, you may have a Sabbath day and not have a Sabbath heart, because you recreate but don’t recalibrate your heart toward God and His will and ways.

It orients our Lives to Grace.

God grounds the command not in creation, but in Salvation. He says, I delivered you from slavery in Egypt. I rescued you and it was my work not yours. Ex 14.13-14 “And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14) The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”” So God commands rest to remind the people that it is not by your work, effort, strength that you were saved from bondage in Egypt, but by my work and effort and strength. As we read the rest of God’s story, we see that The Exodus prefigured a greater salvation that was to come in Jesus. He would come and save us from the power of sin and its penalty of death. He would come and through his life, death and resurrection set us free from all the things that bind us. He would take our sins upon himself and die for us that we might be forgiven and restored to God the Father. But it would be his work not ours. When we Sabbath we are speaking these truths to ourselves, it is not my work that counts, but Christ’s work that counts. Because of Jesus I am fully known and fully loved apart from my record and efforts.
    One of the reasons it is so hard to Sabbath is because we wrap up our identity so much in what we do, what we accomplish, how we perform and how we are perceived by others. We derive our meaning from what we accomplish. We have to constantly be doing because that is the measure of our being. If I am doing little work, I have little worth. I am declared right, OK, by my works, my accomplishments. Yet, Sabbath orients us to grace. I can rest from my work because my value, significance, worth, meaning, identity and joy is not rooted in what I do or accomplish, but in what God has done to save me. Regardless of my accomplishments, I am so sinful that Christ had to die for me but I am so loved regardless of my failures that he was glad to die for me. That is what gives me meaning and value and joy. Sabbath reorients us to grace because it reminds us that we are something not because of our work, but because of Christ’s work. When you rest, you are remembering grace. This is why we say that Sabbath ultimately points to the rest that Jesus brings us; Jesus is our Sabbath – our rest from working to earn God’s favor and establish our identity.

Sabbath orients us toward Hope.

When God created the word, it was very good and he rested. When sin and death entered that world and shattered it, God got up from his Sabbath rest and begin the work of new creation, of healing and restoring this broken world. That work of re-creation, of new creation was accomplished in the sending of his Son. Jesus died on the cross to destroy sin and from the cross, said it is Finished, his work completed.  Three days later, he rose from the dead destroying death, and the new creation began. He ascended to heaven where the Scripture tells us that he is seated at the right hand of God, and will return to bring an Ultimate Sabbath rest, the new creation consummated, creation fully healed, all sickness, sin, injustice, poverty, suffering, and death banished in a new heavens and new earth, and it will be very good. Jesus through his life, death, resurrection and return is healing the creation and it is healing our lives. Sabbath is a rehearsal of that coming rest. This is the point of Hebrews 4:9 “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” When we Sabbath in the midst of a broken world and even with our broken lives, we are rehearsing and reminding ourselves there is a day coming when God will heal all that is wounded and he will raise up all that is fallen and he will restore all that is broken. We remind ourselves of that hope and of the truth that God wants to bring more and more of that rest into our current experience even as we wait for the coming of it in its fullness. He wants to bring renewal to our lives and relationships, justice to the oppressed, food to the hungry, healing to the hurting. This is why Jesus performed so many healings on Sabbath. Illus: The Man with the withered hand. Jesus is saying, there is a coming Sabbath that will restore all that is broken and raise up all that is fallen in your lives and in this world. I am showing you a glimpse of it now. Sabbath fuses hope into us because it reminds us of God’s story and the future that he will bring about and that he wants to unleash more and more in the present. 

Closing Practical Points

Plan. Sunday is best. Lord’s Day. Day of worship with the community (fellowship)
Prepare – the Jewish community prepares diligently for this day. They look forward to it and plan for it.
Practice – Science and an art. Sabbath day and a Sabbath heart.