Today I want to take a deeper look at the Sabbath.  I’ve been thinking about the Sabbath a lot lately.  I know, how much more is there to say about the Sabbath.  We’ve heard it said from them of old that the Sabbath is about resting from our works.  Certainly, the sabbath has something to do with rest, but is rest the fruit of the sabbath or is it the root of what the sabbath is all about?   

I think one of the reasons there’s confusion amongst people who think the sabbath is about observing days, and years, and moons is because we’ve described the sabbath by saying we must rest from our works.  

Even, in grace.  When I first came into an understanding of the grace of God.  I saw that Jesus is the substance of what the sabbath is all about.  I said Jesus is our sabbath, which is true, and I described that as resting in Jesus.  But, I didnt really understand what it meant to abide in Jesus.  That left me in the place where I said the good and the right thing is to rest so I must rest.  I was still serving the sabbath instead of the sabbath serving me.  If we say the sabbath is about how we must rest from our works we are still seeing it as man serving the sabbath instead of seeing the sabbath is about God serving mankind

Jesus says in Mark 2 that the sabbath is for man not man for the sabbath.  The Sabbath isnt Lord over man.  Its not man who serves the sabbath.  It isnt something we perform or produce.  The sabbath has never been about you must rest.  It’s always been about God serving you with rest. 

Joh 5:5  And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
Joh 5:6  When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
Joh 5:7  The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
Joh 5:8  Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
Joh 5:9  And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
Joh 5:10  The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
Joh 5:11  He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.
Joh 5:12  Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?
Joh 5:13  And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.
Joh 5:14  Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
Joh 5:15  The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.
Joh 5:16  And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

It’s interesting as you read the gospels, a lot of the miracles Jesus performed that are recorded in the gospel accounts occurred on the sabbath.  It’s no accident its recorded that way.  It’s actually teaching us something about what the sabbath is really all about.  

Jesus heals the man of his infirmity on the sabbath, and tells the guy to take up his bed and walk.  Now when the Jews heard it was Jesus who made him whole, they persecuted Jesus, because he healed the man on the sabbath.  

Theres other times in the scriptures when the pharisees persecuted Jesus over his interpretation of the law, and Jesus would say to them how do you read the law.  What do you see the law saying.  

The pharisees read the law, and interpreted the sabbath as a day that is set aside unto the Lord, and the way you set that day aside unto the Lord was you ceased from all your works.  You didnt do anything.  That’s what the jewish people read in the law about the sabbath, and so they come to Jesus asking him why He is healing people on the sabbath, which is to work on the sabbath.  

Jesus responds by saying the reason I healed the guy on the sabbath is because my Father works hitherto and so do I.  These guys were upset because of what they read in the law about the Sabbath but Jesus healed the guy on the sabbath because of what he saw in the law about the Sabbath.  Now listen you have to understand when Jesus the fathers works hitherto and so do I he got that from the scriptures.  

So Jesus says to the Jewish people the reason I healed the guy on the sabbath is because when I read the law I see the Sabbath is about the work of the Father to make people whole from the death sin is serving them with, and I am Immanuel, I am everlasting Father, so here I am showing everyone the work of the Father, by healing people from the infirmity sin is serving them with.  Remember this all happens in John’s gospel & Johns gospel is all about Jesus making the Father known to the world.  

The hebrew word for sabbath comes from Shabath.  Browns driver Briggs hebrew definitions says it means to cause to cease; to cause to desist; to cause someone to cease from their exertion; to make one to rest.  

Like the psalmist says in psalm 23 you make me to lie down in tender green grass.  Meaning you bring forth rest in me.  The psalmist doesnt say you tell me to lie down in the tender green grass.  David saw God was the Shepherd and Bishop of his life.  He saw the Father does work to serve him with life.  He says you prepare a table for me in the midst of my enemies.  And that put David’s flesh to rest, and caused him to lie down in the tender green grass.  

If you look at the woman caught in the act of adultery Jesus did a work to remove the accusation that was against the woman.  He did a work to remove the condemnation of death that was reigning over her.  He justified her from the accusers.  Jesus did all those things on the 8th day of the great feast.  Leviticus and numbers say the eighth day of the great feast is a holy convocation, meaning it’s a sabbath day.  Jesus did all those things as God on the sabbath, to cause that woman to cease from her own exertion.  He was serving her with rest.  

Leviticus 23:3 says Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.  

The sabbath is a holy convocation unto the Lord.  A convocation is a gathering.  A holy convocation unto the Lord is a gathering that is set apart unto the remembrance of the work of God.   A sabbath of rest is where you are put to rest by your heart and your mind being filled with the work of God to serve you with His life.

Jesus says in John 15 he kept his Father's commandment.  Well what was the Father’s commandment?  Jesus says in John 12 he didnt come to speak of himself but he came to reveal the Father, even as the Father has given him commandment.  The Father’s commandment was for Jesus to make Him known to the world.  The way Jesus would reveal the Fathers love for the world is by manifesting the work of the Father to heal mankind from the death sin was serving them with.  That’s why Jesus says to the Father in John 17 glorify me that I may glorify you.  Raise me from the dead and your work to heal mankind from the wages of sin will be made manifest in the earth.  

Jesus was put to rest on the cross by the revelation of the Father’s love for him.  He observed the Sabbath.  Jesus wasnt thinking he must rest.  His eyes were full of the work of the Father to save him from the body of death and raise him up in incorruptible flesh, and that put his flesh to rest.  As the psalmist says you shall not let your holy one see corruption, neither will you leave my life in the grave.  And because Jesus was put to rest by seeing the work of the Father to shepherd his life.  What happened is, the work of the Father to cleanse mankind from death, and serve us with His life was made manifest in the resurrection.  As the psalmist says in psalm 40 I will declare your faithfulness oh God in the midst of the great congregation.  I will sing of how you picked me up out of the miry clay.  

Jesus declared the Fathers love for the world in his resurrection.  The work of the Father to heal mankind from sin and death was made manifest in the body of Jesus’ resurrection, so the work of the Father could be set apart in our eyes, and our flesh could be put to rest.  

Heb 4:9  says There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. 

The letter to the Hebrews is all about the work God performed through His Christ.  The people of God in the context of this verse are the people whose hearts and minds are set apart unto the lamb God provided.

In the Old Testament the Israelites didnt enter God’s rest.  They didnt enter the rest that comes from the work of God to give them the promised land because their minds were filled with their own workings instead of the work of God.  

There remains a rest therefore for the people of God.  The author of Hebrews is talking about the rest that comes from seeing that God has provided Himself a lamb to set you apart from death unto life.  Those whose minds are filled with Gods lamb, and the work He’s done to cleanse them from death, and set them apart to Himself and His indestructible life, have entered God’s rest.  Theres a rest that comes from the hand of God, that He serves you with, by providing Himself a lamb, and doing a work to sanctify you from the death sin was serving you with.  As you walk in the good work of God, you will find His work serving you with rest.  

Col 2:16  Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Col 2:17  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Col 2:18  Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
Col 2:19  And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Paul says dont let anyone deprive you of the reward that is stored up for you in Christ.  The increase that comes from God doesnt come from what you eat or drink.  Neither is God’s increase found in observing holy days, or the new moon, or the sabbath days.  Paul says God nourishes our lives through Christ.  

Christ is the substance of the sabbath because Christ is the work of God.  Christ is the right arm of God serving us with His rest.  He is God Himself flexing out in the world.  What’s that funny saying, take me to the gun show baby.  Jesus is taking us to the gun show.  He is God’s guns.  God sowed His strength into the earth through Jesus so we can reap rest from His work.   Rest is added to us by the hand of God.  Remember the psalmist says you maketh me to lie down in the tender green grass by revealing yourself as the Shepherd and Bishop of my life.  

Circling back to what it means to abide in Jesus.  Abiding in Jesus means for your eyes to be set on the work God performed in Christ to cleanse you from the death thats in the world because of sin.  To abide in Christ means to live your days in this world beholding the work of God to serve you with a life that overcomes death in the flesh.  As we behold the work God performed in Jesus we increase with an increase that comes from the strength in God’s hand.  As we walk in this world hearing the faith.  Hearing about the work of God, we have a certainty we will increase in the rest that comes from the strength in God’s hand.  

The letter to the Hebrews talks about not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, exhorting one another to love.  Its talking about the  holy convocation Leviticus and Exodus and other places talk about.  If Jesus is the substance of everything we hoped for through the law, then the thought of why should we continue to gather can come up. Just because Jesus is the substance of what we were hoping for through the law.  Don’t stop gathering together.  Only let your gatherings be in remembrance of the work of God, and His lamb, so you can be put to rest by the revelation of His love for you.