HOW TO FIND REST IN GOD

INTRODUCTION

It was my joy to pray with a prodigal this week to rededicate his life to Christ. The bondage of sin was too much for him to bear, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit lovingly confronted him with the error of his ways. The grace of God showed up, and that which was dead is now alive again.

This experience reminded me of Paul’s declaration to the Galatians. They were tempted to come under the bondage preached by Judaizers. But the apostle urges them:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Gal 5:1).

Freedom is available to all who call on the name of the Lord! The strength to remain free is also readily available to every child of God. Yes, even those who’ve failed or made mistakes! The love of the Father is forever.

Luke six is a vital chapter helping us to understand the radical changes Christ brings into this world. He confronts the burdensome regulations of the Pharisees while comforting those living under their burdens. Christ draws a line in the sand and declares three new realities made possible by the incarnation:

• A New Sabbath

• A New Nation

• A New Blessing

Warren Wiersbe commented on Luke six, saying, “So what’s new, everything.” Let’s explore these new realities and their impact on our walk with Jesus.

A NEW SABBATH

Sabbath is an essential rhythm for our lives. The word Sabbath means rest, and the idea of the Sabbath is directly tied to God’s creative work in Genesis. The Triune God created the world in six days; on the seventh, He “rested” (Gen 2:2-3). In the Ten Commandments, God institutes a day of rest we must honor and keep holy (Ex 20:2-17; Deut 5:6-21). Part of maintaining this day holy is setting aside time to worship God.

Unfortunately, by the time Jesus came on the scene, this day of rest and worship had become a series of a detailed list of dos and don’ts that stripped it of all joy. What was meant to bring rest and connection to God became a day of worry and fear, hoping you didn’t break a rule. But there is a deeper problem at hand.

The rules surrounding the Sabbath caused God’s people to forget that God is the focus of the Sabbath, not the rules. The legalisms regarding Sabbath observance shifted from honoring God to honoring the regulations, and it took something holy and turned into a mindless ritual.

Pharisees constantly looked for reasons to accuse Jesus and the disciples of not honoring the rules. Jesus challenges them to return to a new day where Sabbath is about honoring the Lord, not just keeping score. Luke six records two confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees.

HARVESTING ON THE SABBATH

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:1-5).

Jesus and his disciples are traveling through a wheat field on the Sabbath. As they walked, some disciples “began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.” The Pharisees saw this and asked Jesus, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

This might have been a legitimate question if God’s Law forbade this action- but that is not the case. Deuteronomy 23:25 tells farmers to leave the edges and corners of their fields unharvested; why? So the poor and needy can come and have something to eat. Someone might say, “Well, the disciples were stealing from this farmer.” Not according to God, and they merely took what God allowed them to have according to His command.[1]

Here is the problem. The Pharisees, not God, created a list of “39 categories” listing all the forbidden activities on the Sabbath. One of those categories was harvesting. Under that category were different rules stating what it meant to gather. And one of those rules said that rubbing the heads of grain between one’s hands was work, therefore, not allowed.[2] The Disciples essentially broke the Pharisee’s rule, not God’s command.

Jesus responds to the anger of the Pharisees by declaring a new day, “The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath” (Lk 6:5). In no uncertain terms, Jesus is declaring Himself God. He is telling the Pharisees that their day of tyranny is over.

As the Son of Man, he possessed the authority to do away with their traditions and countless regulations. He is God, the Creator of the Sabbath, and make of His day whatever He wants!

HEALING THE WITHERED HAND

On another Sabbath, he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled (Lk 6:6).

Jesus’s teaching in Luke 6:1-5 did not sink in with the Pharisees. Jesus goes to the synagogue and runs into more Pharisees, ready to pounce on Him. On this Sabbath, a man with a withered hand was in the temple. Jesus, the compassionate savior, heals this man. This gives them ammunition to use against Christ.

I noticed something new in Luke six. Jesus healed this man without ever moving, laying hands on him, or making any action that could be construed as work. All Jesus did was speak, and speaking is not considered work by the Pharisees.

They are furious because their rules state that no one can heal (or practice medicine) on the Sabbath. But Jesus challenged them based on morality, not just law; read his words carefully:

“I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it” (Lk 6:9)

Matthew recounts this question being put to the Pharisees but gives more detail (Mt 12:11-12). He records Jesus telling the story of how a shepherd goes after a sheep that fell in a pit on the Sabbath. The Pharisee’s own rules allowed them to be good on the Sabbath! By choosing not to heal the withered hand on the Sabbath, Jesus would commit an evil deed. Since Jesus is incapable of committing evil, He made the right choice. The Pharisees are more concerned with a sheep’s health than a man’s – Jesus called them out on their hypocrisy.

Jesus exposed an important truth. Their rules were not bringing life but death. Sabbath is about worshipping God from a heart of love, not just religious obligation. The burdensome regulations of man were too much to bear. Jesus is offering them a new sabbath – a lighter burden that He will help them carry.

Can I remind all of us that when we put our faith in the person of Jesus Christ, we cease being a slave to sin? Instead, you and I entered God’s rest! In Christ, we discover a peace that passes all understanding (Phil 4:6).

Some of you may be saying, “If Jesus came to give us a new Sabbath, that is, a new rest, why do I not feel rested? If I am supposed to live in God’s peace, why do I constantly feel uneasy about life and the world around me?

FINDING REST IN GOD

Examining how we approach God is the greatest secret to finding rest in God. Let me explain.

The Pharisees approached God from the perspective, “I must strive to do what is right so God will then love me.” In other words, their approach to God was centered on earning God’s love by doing the right things.

This type of approach always ends in frustration. Why? Because in some strange way, we are telling God, “Your ways are not as good as my ways.” That always results in making lists of rules that no one has the power to keep. Not even the ones making a list!

The biblical idea of rest never depends on us! So, what is the biblical idea of rest? The best place to answer that is found in Hebrews 4:9-11:

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience (Heb 4:9-11).

Hebrews 4:9-10 is not telling us to stop working our jobs and rest all the time. The passage infers that when we come to faith in Christ, we stop trying to earn God’s love and salvation. Just like God declared the seventh-day good and finished, He, through our faith in Christ, declares us good and complete!

Some of you have convinced yourself that you will only find the Sabbath rest after you die. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. God’s peace, comfort, and strength are available to you today and every day. One day we will, with unspeakable joy, enter our eternal rest. But eternal rest is only an extension of the rest we experience in God now!

But what about Hebrews 9:11? Why does it tell us to “make every effort to enter that rest?” Doesn’t that mean we have to do something? Doesn’t that mean we should strive or work for God’s rest in this life?

It’s an important question and deserves our attention. The answer is in the opening words of Hebrews 4:3, “Now we who have believed enter that rest…”

If you have Christ in your life, you have the rest that causes the weary to rest. You’ve entered a relationship with Christ and God through the Holy Spirit, and that relationship is characterized by rest.

The key word in Hebrews 4:3 is “believed.” Believing is not a one-time act. Sure, we believe in the gospel and are saved, but that is the beginning of our ability to trust God with our whole being.

God put my feet to the fire about this a few years ago. We were pastoring a small rural congregation. Money was tight, and my wife worked to help make ends meet. She was experiencing continual pain in her shoulder, and the doctors said she needed an operation. They performed the surgery, and she began her recovery.

We expected her to miss work for a couple of weeks. But her physical therapist said she needs a longer recovery. When I heard this, I went into panic mode because her income was vital to our ability to pay the bills. Now that income is gone for a while. So, I sent a prayer text to the men’s group asking them to pray. I thought the prayer would be for my wife to heal and return to work. No!

God spoke through one of the men in my group that this would be a time for me to believe in God and rest in His promises.

Over the next few weeks, I moved from trying to believe to a fundamental belief in God. You might say, “What’s the difference?” Well, the difference is massive. Let me explain.

When I try to believe in God, I am not at rest, and my spirit is constantly striving to find a way to fix my predicament. But, when I believe in God, I rest in the assurance that He is in control, that He is working, and that He already knew what was happening before it happened. Therefore, He’s been working on a solution before I knew there was a problem!

Don’t get me wrong; God will ask us to do certain things (like work, change, or whatever). But even doing those things is an act of faith and trust in God’s voice.

It all comes back to how I approach God. When I got saved, my approach to God came through grace and faith. The same approach is necessary as I walk with God. You and I come to God with our problems and pains, but because of grace and faith, we are empowered to believe in God and rest in His care.

CONCLUSION

Let me end by asking you one question. “What is that one area of your life where you do not have rest or peace?” Finances, children, work, and on and on. I want to encourage you to do a straightforward thing: let God have your biggest concern. Step back into the rest God promised and gave you when you believed Him for salvation.

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[1] NIV Life Application note on 6:1,2 (p. 1678)

[2] Ibid.

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