First question, see if we can get some conversation
going this morning. When you think of the word
rest, right, what comes to mind? Maybe how you
rest or when you think of the idea of rest, what
tends to come to mind? A couple people. If you're
a guest this morning, we do have some interaction.
I do like that when we can talk amongst ourselves.
It doesn't need to just be me talking at you,
but talking with you and having that conversation.
It would be interesting to see how this is answered.
When you think of rest, what do you think of?
Just breathing, apparently. Okay, for Nikki,
right? That was just an exhale. I'm not going
to do that on the mic because I think that's
weird, but just breathing something out. Sure.
Others? Calm. Okay. An idea of calmness. Okay.
Yeah. I don't fully understand that one. It's
very hard for me to calm down on stuff. I know
you're shocked. Others? Sleep. Yeah. Hopefully,
when you're asleep, you're at rest, and I think
80 % of us understand that. I just made that
up, but I think it's true. Others? I heard something
over here. A nap, so very, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, how many good nappers do we have? Okay,
how many bad nappers do we have? Absolutely,
right? There are people that will say, man, I
just had the greatest power nap. And I look at
them and go, I don't understand what you just
said. Like, oh, I just needed 20 minutes. The
volume of voices in my head don't go down a hair
in 20 minutes, let alone try to find a 20 -minute
nap. Any power nappers? Great. Do not covet thy
neighbor's power nap. That's unbelievable. Anyone
else? When you think of resting, where's a good
place to rest? Keep it appropriate. What? The
beach. Absolutely. Yeah, it's coming from our
Florida travelers. Yes. Yeah. Alaska. Thank you,
Randy. Yep, there's an Alaskaflex. The Spielmans
were in Alaska. But that, absolutely. I know
people that have gone. It is, man, it's beauty.
When you're in God's creation, resting seems
to be so much easier, whether a beach or Alaska.
Those are opposites. But anywhere else? A comfortable
spot. Yeah, absolutely. A couch, a comfortable
spot, right? So let me ask a question. Oh, go
ahead. Talking to Al? Oh, no? Okay. Al's lazy
boy chair. This is getting weird, Andrea. Okay,
we're just going to keep going, right? Something
about a lazy boy chair, great. So how many of
us rest well? How many people can offer a confession
today amongst friends? How many of us rest well?
Seven of you. Out of a room of 270, seven of
you rest well. I think this message is going
to hit. The rest seven, you can rest well and
fall asleep. Because you rest well, you don't
need this, right? And some of you might do that
already. But understand that we don't talk about
Sabbath a lot. We just don't. Or if we do talk
about Sabbath, we use it as some kind of defense
mechanism as to why we aren't going to go do
that. I will have that in marriage or premarital
counseling all the time. People use it as some
kind of trump card. Like, hey, do you want to
go hang out with my parents today? No, I need
to Sabbath. Hey, don't you want to go see your
grandson's t -ball game? No, I need to Sabbath.
That's not how you're supposed to use it. And
the Lord is going to bring that about from Luke
chapter 6. We'll be in Luke 6. But before we
get there, the claim is that he's the Lord of
the Sabbath. That is what Jesus is claiming this
morning. It was Son of Man brought pressure.
Lord of the Sabbath brings almost even more pressure
than Son of Man from last week. But I want to
talk first, before we jump into God's Word, what
does it feel like when a good gift... becomes
heavy. That this gift of rest is a gift we all
have been given by our Heavenly Father, yet sometimes
good gifts can become heavy. There are few things
more tragic in life than when a gift becomes
a burden. Something meant to bring life slowly
in some weird way that we tend to kind of navigate
to, that that gift, the thing that brought life,
slowly becomes something that weighs us down.
A couple examples. Maybe a job that once felt
like a calling, super excited, like get up every
day, this is great, all of a sudden becomes,
or slowly over time, becomes an exhausting pressure.
Maybe a hobby, once loved. then becomes an obligation.
Maybe, even if we're honest, that faith itself,
instead of this invigorating thing that we walk
into every day, tends just to become a thing
we have to check off. Did my Bible time, Pastor
Jidge said show up to pray, so we're going to
pray, but we'll go Tuesday because it doesn't
fit in my Sunday schedule, all the things. That
can easily happen. And that's exactly what happened
with the idea of Sabbath in Jesus' day. That
in Jesus' day, the idea of Sabbath went from
being a gift to being a political, a religious,
a moral obligation. Because the thing is, God
created the Sabbath, right? I was sitting down
with a firefighter this week who has been going
through a lot of struggles. And he was talking
about how he doesn't rest well. And so it's just
the sermon was already done. I was like, oh,
you're going to get the sermon before I even
give it. And sitting down with him, he's just
like, I just don't understand why I need to rest.
But then my mind, all the things. And I said,
brother, God himself rested. So I think we should
too. He just kind of looked at me. He's not,
I mean, faith isn't a huge conversation in his
life right now. Hopefully it will be. He just
looked at me, and I think that connection of,
wow, this God of the universe, or the God that
I speak about in my chaplaincy, rested. So I
want to offer that to you this morning, is if
that's a week wrecker for you, great. If that's
a month wrecker for you, great. If that's a rest
wrecker for you, awesome, you're getting it.
God himself took time to rest. He said, I'm going
to create these days, but then I am going to
rest. Rest was a gift. Sabbath was a gift. A
day of rest. A day of worship. A day to remember
that the world is held together, not by your
own efforts, mine own efforts, the elders, the
deacons, but by God's grace. Over time, the religious
rule of the day, right? We saw how that became
perverted and corrupted. They started layering
rule upon rule upon rule around this idea of
rest. By the first century, there were dozens
of regulations defining what's counted as work
and what counted as rest. Rest became this thing
you needed a recipe for. The gift was no longer
a gift. How far someone could walk was the difference
between rest or work. How much grain someone
could gather, rest or work. The actions counted
as labor, rest or work. What was meant to be
a day of rest became a day of spiritual pressure
and spiritual compromise. And into that pressure
-filled system, Jesus walks in, and I love how
he does it. And when he begins redefining the
Sabbath, he is doing something far bigger than
just changing a rule. He is revealing something
about himself. He is revealing that the Lord
of the Sabbath had arrived. Another reason, and
hopefully we're picking those up, as we distinguish
each candle, we can see and hear another reason
why the religious system wants to ultimately
snuff the light of the world out. So let's jump
in. Luke chapter 6. We're going to be beginning
of Luke 6. We're going to be in the first 10
verses. Again, we'll show it on the screen, but
if you have it in your own Bibles or on your
app, we use the ESV, but feel free to follow
along with another translation, though it will
read different. The first 10 verses of Luke 6.
On a Sabbath, while he was going through the
grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some
of the heads of grain, rubbing them in their
hands. But some of the Pharisees says, why are
you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?
And Jesus answered them, have you not read what
David did when he was hungry, he and those who
were with him, how he entered the house and took
and ate the bread of the presence, which is not
lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also
gave it to those with him? And he said to them,
the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. On another
Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching.
And a man was there whose right hand was withered.
And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him
to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath so
that they may find a reason to accuse him. But
he knew their thoughts. Again, two weeks in a
row, knows their thoughts. And he said to the
man with the withered hand, Come and stand here.
And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to
them, So, we see a couple different... aspects
of jesus doing or his disciples doing something
on the sabbath and the teaching that goes along
with it so the pressure point one that jesus
walks into our lives and then the lives of the
text religion can turn god's gifts into burdens
okay that's pressure point one this morning jesus
and his disciples are walking through a grain
field Nothing bad about that, right? That's just
kind of ho -hum. Walking through a grain field,
the disciples pick the heads of grain, rub them
in their hands, and eat it. I don't fully get
it. I didn't really do a lot of research on it.
We're just going to take it as it says. They
rub the grain. They ate it. And immediately,
Pharisees confront them. Immediately, gotcha,
right? What are you doing, or why are you doing
what is not lawful on the Sabbath? The irony,
if we really dig deep, is striking as what is
going on here. The Old Testament actually allowed
travelers to pick grain by hand. Deuteronomy
23, which the Pharisees should know that's part
of the law. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, right? Part of the law. They would
have known that. That was made a provision. Deuteronomy
23. The issue here was not God's law. The Pharisees
didn't really have a lawful leg to stand on in
a pure way of understanding the law. The issue
was the human additions to the law. And this
is what Jesus is going to call out. You see,
the Pharisees had built layers of their own interpretation
around the Sabbath so that even simple actions
like rubbing grain together would be classified
as work. What began as a way to honor God eventually
became a system of pressure that someone needed
to endure in order to be a good believer, a good
Jew in that time. Instead of the rest that people
should have, they... felt watched. Instead of
joy, they felt judged. Instead of freedom, they
felt burdened. This is the system of oppression
that the Pharisees had built around the religious
idea of following Yahweh. But church, the temptation
hasn't disappeared today. How many of you have
walked through a grain field this week and rubbed
wheat in your hands and ate it? It's okay. You
can offer that. Exactly. Yet, Faith can slowly
become performance in today's aspect, in today's
culture, right? The person that we are online,
following all the rules, doing all the things,
yet the person we're doing in private, different
people. The performative aspect of faith hasn't
changed. The pressure is still there. It just
looks very different. We begin to measure spirituality
by activity. Or, because I'm on a board, I am
this. Or because I am on council, I am this,
said no one who ever has really been on a council,
right? That that burden comes. It's not very
light at times. We like to compare ourselves
to others. And if we're being honest, compare
is a nice word, right? Well, what's another word
when we compare ourselves to others? What's another
word we actually like to use but we don't tell
anybody? Judge. Right, judge. Thank you, Will.
Yeah, there you go. It was good. He was resting.
So, yes, he was. We like to compare, judge, other
people. That's part of our religiosity, if we're
being honest. We wonder if we are doing enough,
praying enough, serving enough. What does enough
mean? Because we look at other people. We look
at other leaders. I'm not as good as them. I
don't do it enough here. I don't blah, blah,
blah. All the things. Pressure, pressure, pressure.
And slowly, the gift of God can begin to feel
like pressure. But Jesus steps on the scene.
And what I love what he does, and what he will
continue to do in this sermon series, he restores
the gift that humans have tainted. He destroys
the gift that humans actually have ripped apart.
And he enters in, pressure point two, he reveals
his authority over the Sabbath. And this is an
aspect of the Sabbath we don't actually understand
at times, yet we feel this pressure a lot. Because
if we're being honest, and if we don't Sabbath,
or if someone reminds us to Sabbath, it can almost
be like this big brother above us of God going,
When's the last time you Sabbathed, Jim? I'm
keeping a ledger. You haven't done any kind of
Sabbath this week. You haven't done anything.
And it may come out like the voice of my wife
or something else, you know, in the aspect of
Sabbath and rest. Jesus is revealing a restoration
to what was being created. Jesus answers the
Pharisees with the story of 1 Samuel 21. David
and his companions were hungry, and they ate
the consecrated bread normally reserved for the
priests, the Levites, the Levitical code. But
the point of the story is clear. Human need matters
more than ritual regulation. Let me say that
again. Human need matters more than religion.
The ritual understanding of how we walk out Christianity.
Then Jesus makes the pressure statement that
would have shocked everyone listening. It doesn't
shock us today, really, in a post -resurrected
society, though it should still convict. The
Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Not a casual
comment. We're building it off of last week that
the Son of Man is here to forgive sins. Boom.
Lines being drawn. Now he doubles down. The Son
of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. This is a claim
of royalty. This is more than just the Messiah.
This is now God speak. This is Yahweh speak.
The Sabbath was instituted by God himself when?
Seventh day of creation. So Jesus is saying,
he is Lord of the Sabbath. What is he actually
claiming? I was there when Yahweh created it.
I am there claiming authority over something
that belongs to God alone. And what we're going
to see is because he's going to say, I... and
the Father are one. The Heidelberg Catechism
helps us understand this moment. Again, the Catechism
is one of our confessions that we follow as a
Reformed Church. It's one of the three that helps
us understand and interpret God's Word. And Lord's
Day 12 tells us that Christ is our chief prophet,
our only high priest, and our eternal king. And
what Luke 6 is pointing us to is his kingship.
His kingship is on display. And again, it's not
just going to be words. It's going to be actions
because it's Jesus and that's what he does. Jesus
is not simply interpreting the Sabbath. He is
declaring authority over it. The one who created
the Sabbath is the one that gets to dictate Sabbath.
Define Sabbath. Invite you into Sabbath. And
if we're being honest, is our Sabbath. You can't
Sabbath in anything else. but God himself. Yeah,
you might be on a nice beach. You might be in
Alaska. You might be at a kid's t -ball game.
I don't know anyone that's Sabbath -stirring
that. But understanding that what is Sabbath?
Sabbath is God's gift to you to be with him.
That is what true Sabbath is. That's why this
is not just some, oh, I guess I'm just Lord of
the Sabbath. It is Sabbath itself. He's declaring
authority over it because what he's saying is
the king has arrived. I am here to make things
new, including how you rest, what you rest in,
and who you rest with. And this is going to bind
anyone that lives a legalistic heart. And that's
the third pressure point. Legalism hardens the
heart. Luke then reorders another Sabbath encounter.
Jesus enters the synagogue. We know that that's
something he did. Right? We learned that last
week. A man with a withered hand is present.
The scribes and the Pharisees are watching closely.
Everywhere that Jesus is, the Pharisees now are
going to be. Because they're watching. They're
waiting. For what? To accuse him. They want stuff
to take him out with. They want that evidence.
They want those lies. They want to twist that
gotcha journalism. But they're not watching with
compassion. They're watching for a mistake. Oh,
he's going to slip up. We know he's going to
slip up. And we know the story. So because he
doesn't slip up, what do they do? They have to
create this whole ruse. They have to have someone
betray him, but that's for later. They want to
see whether Jesus will heal on the Sabbath so
they can accuse him. And notice how pressure
reveals their hearts. This dude has a withered
hand. This dude is suffering. Not just politically,
not just in the community, but physically. He
has a wizard hand. Jesus sees the suffering man
and thinks about restoration. So he asks them
a question. He doesn't ask the guy. The guy is
coming for one thing. To see if his hand will
be restored. If physical healing is going to
take place. So you got Jesus, you got this guy
in front of him, but then he looks over at the
Pharisees and asks them the question, because
he perceives their thoughts, is it lawful on
the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save
life or to destroy it? I think that question
is fascinating, because he's putting the Pharisees
on notice. He's looking at all of them and saying,
how far are you going to take this junk that
you have created out of my word? Are you going
to lean and rest in me over someone potentially
dying? Getting destroyed? But they remain silent.
Sometimes silence is an answer. Sometimes a non
-vote is a vote. Legalism always produces...
Hardness. What am I trying to say? Legalism always
produces hardness, harshness, and hurt. I don't
know anyone that walks out a legalistic Christianity
and goes, this feels great. Come, be a part of
my legalism. No. That's a disgusting way. I'm
all about following the rules. But I also know
that I can't all the time. That I'm going to
fall. That I'm going to need forgiveness. I'm
going to need grace. I'm going to need mercy.
Thank God it's new every morning. But legalism
says, come up to me. Up here in this fake understanding
that I do everything perfectly. And that's how
I get my relationship with God. But Jesus enters.
comes down and says, no, it is not about hardness.
It is not about harshness. It's not about hurt.
When religion becomes about rules instead of
the relationship with God, compassion does what?
Disappears. We have to have compassion because
we have been shown compassion. The Sabbath was
meant to cultivate mercy instead of being a tool
of judgment. Now, Pause. Time out. There are
some hard conversations here. Right? Look at
the state of our world with sports. Youth sports.
Right? All of those things. Some of you, you're
binding right now because you're like, is he
going to call out doing sports on the weekend?
I'm not going to call it out, but I'm going to
acknowledge that those exist. And that church
virtual seems to be this little bit trump card,
like, yeah, I know we were gone, but we watched
online on a Tuesday, and that's all well and
good, and that's something we can offer that,
but I think we have to get to the heart of the
understanding of what is your heart around it?
What is my heart around this? Are we using this
as a tool of judgment, or are we asking people
to rest in the mercies of God to understand those
areas of life? That we don't measure up. That
we need Jesus. That we need to walk out. That
we need to show love because we've been loved.
Show mercy because we've been shown mercy. Because
I don't care who you are. I don't care your faith
relationship. Whether this is your first day
in church or your thousandth day in church. I
don't care what kind of church you grew up in.
I don't care about your understanding or relationship
with God's word or prayer or Jesus himself. We
all need restoration. Why? Because we're all
broken. If we have this piece of glass that represents
our life, it has all been smashed on the ground.
And someone needs to put it together. And it's
not going to be you. It's not going to be your
spouse. It's not going to be the sports. It's
not going to be all those other things. It's
going to be the Savior. That brings everything
together. Because Jesus restores what sin has
broken. Jesus tells the man, stretch out your
hand. And immediately his hand is restored. I
would have loved it if Luke's writer would have
spent more time on this. This is where I just
go, man, Jesus, I think you missed it. And then
I get convicted like, well, that was a dumb thing
to say. No, he did it, and that's fine. Who am
I to judge God in healing? I would have loved
to know more of that interaction. I would have
loved to know more about that healing. But it's
a simple miracle. But it's a miracle. Why do
I want more? Just receive it, Jim. But it's pretty
hard. Though simple, it's powerful because the
Sabbath was always meant to celebrate God's work
of what? Creation. Restoration. Fulfillment.
That's what we rest in. Whether you take it literal
and Sunday is your day of rest, what you should
be doing is looking back on a week that was,
thanking God that you've made it, that he was
there, and you find rest in him. The Sabbath
was always meant to celebrate God's work of restoration.
God rested after creation, not because he was
tired, because his work was complete. That when
we complete something, we should rest in what
God has done. And the Sabbath reminded Israel
that God would be the one to restore everything,
that one day sin, though it broke everything,
would be destroyed, and restoration would be
everything. Jesus now stands on that promise
before them. He's doing way more than a healing,
way more than a teaching. Jesus is not violating
the Sabbath as they want to put on him. What
he's actually doing is fulfilling. The Sabbath.
And I don't know about you, but Jesus can. Why?
Because he is our Sabbath. That's what happens
when rest walks into the room of your life. At
this moment in the story, something deeper is
becoming clearer, hopefully. The Sabbath was
never meant to be merely about a rule or even
just about a day. It was meant to point to a
greater reality of who Jesus is. It is meant
to point to salvation and restoration that only
God can bring. That's why you can do everything
you can to rest well. I'm going through a season
of life where I cannot find a comfortable pillow
to save my life. Right? I've gone through the
Wonder Pillow. I've gone through America's Pillow.
I've gone through whatever's. I've done shapes
that don't look comfortable. And guess what?
They're not. I can't find rest to save my life.
I guarantee you that my bride would sometimes
just go and knock me off and go find it somewhere
else. A pillow and rest. Like the couch. I am
striving for that. And in ways, the church can
make us feel the same way. That the church makes
us feel like we're not doing enough, we're not
giving enough, we're not showing up enough, we're
not signing up for the nursery enough, we're
not doing all of these things to cultivate our
relationship with God. That is what they struggled
with then, and we do struggle with it now. And
yes, do we need all those things in the church?
We do, but if our priority is off, if we don't
know who we find our definition is, none of it
matters. Jesus is revealing in this moment, when
he heals the man's withering hand, he is showing
that true purpose of the Sabbath is ultimately
restoration. That is the true purpose of the
church. It's not all the mission trips, though
those are great. It's not all the... First Saturday
serves, which we are rocking and doing a great
job. It's not about the outreach events. It's
not about the council. It's not the potential
building. It's restoration. Can people come here
and find a restorative relationship with God?
That is what it's about. Because sin is going
to continually try to break it. That's where
Lord's Day 11 asks a question. Why is the Son
of God called Jesus, meaning Savior? And the
answer is simply beautiful. Because he saves
us from our sins. It is a sinful way of life
to try to climb some kind of religious ladder
to God. It's not sinful to do those things. To
Sabbath, right? To tithe. Walking out your faith
that way. That is all great. But when the mindset
and the heartbeat is to... Connect with God that
way and not just rest in who he is. That's when
we turn it to sin. In other words, Jesus does
not merely adjust the Sabbath rules. He brings
the salvation of the Sabbath that it was always
pointing to. The rest that humanity truly needs
is not simply physical rest. It is the rest found
in forgiveness. Friend, stop sinning. And sit
in forgiveness. And I look at the mirror first.
I could look at all of you first, but that would
be hypocrisy. I'm going to turn and look at my
own mirror. Stop doing those things. Stop trying
to reach the spiritual top. Sit in who God is.
He is the reconciler. And he wants to be reconciled
to you in rest. It's the rest knowing that our
sins no longer separate us from a creator. And
that the only one that can give us rest is Jesus.
The same Jesus who told the man to stretch out
his hand will one day be the one to stretch out
his own hands on the cross. And through his sacrifice
the deepest rest of all is secured. That is why
the Sabbath ultimately finds fulfillment not
in a calendar day, not in 24 hours, but in a
person, the Savior, the Lord of the Sabbath,
the one who saves us from our sins. And when
Jesus walks into that room of our life, true
rest always follows him. So let's land this plane.
What is Luke telling us then, and what is Luke
telling us now? Well, then... The Pharisees believed
obedience meant stricter rules. You see, Jesus
revealed that obedience means trusting the Lord
who fulfills the law. Then they guarded the Sabbath
like a fence, but Jesus opens that door. Why?
Because now many people experience enormous pressure
from life, work, expectations, and even religion.
But Christ offers something different. Rest from
yourself. Rest from that desire to be your own
God, yet rest from the desire to be the center
of your universe. The rest of forgiveness. The
rest of belonging to Jesus. The rest of knowing
that salvation does not depend on your performance.
And guess what? It never has and it never will.
But a rest in the one who gives you rest. So
let's come into the rest of Christ together,
church. We live in a world of pressure. Pressure
to perform, pressure to succeed, pressure to
prove ourselves. But the Lord of the Sabbath
speaks a different word. He doesn't say, go and
do. Get it done. No. He says, come to me. Lay
down that burden. Stop trying to earn what Christ
has already accomplished. Trust the one who fulfills
the Sabbath. Because the Lord of the Sabbath
is also the Savior of sinners. And in him we
will always find rest for our souls. Let's pray.