Rest for the Weary
Download MP3Good morning, everybody. Today, we are gonna be continuing our sermon series walking through the 10 Commandments. And, today, we're actually gonna be looking at the Sabbath commandment. We're gonna be skipping over the 3rd commandment, and Joel's gonna come back to that next week, as he looks at not taking the Lord's name in vain. But, for today, we're going to look at the Sabbath.
Josh Hausen:And, before we take a look at our passage, I want to invite each of you to recite the 10 commandments along with me. You can find them in your worship guide, or they're gonna be on the screen above me. And, the reason we're doing this is that we want each of us to know the Ten Commandments by the end of this series. We want to have them in our hearts, and we want to remember them. So, if you will, I ask you to join me in reading them.
Josh Hausen:You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make any graven images. You shall not take the Lord's name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor your father and mother.
Josh Hausen:You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, and you shall not covet. Thank you.
Josh Hausen:Now, for today, the text that we're gonna be looking at is found in Exodus 20 verses 8 through 11. So if you have that, you can turn with me. I'm gonna read it for us, and I ask you to slow down and listen, for these are the words of the Lord. Exodus 20 verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Josh Hausen:6 days, you shall labor and do all of your work. But the 7th day is a Sabbath to the lord, your god. On it, you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in 6 days, the lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the 7th day. Therefore, the lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Josh Hausen:This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to God. Please pray with me. Heavenly father, we come to hear from you today. We pray that you would teach us the truth about who you are and who you've called us to be.
Josh Hausen:We pray that you would receive glory and honor in our worship today. In Jesus name. Amen. Now, from the outset of looking at this passage, I want to give us an idea of where we are heading in our time together. I want to try to help us answer this one very important question.
Josh Hausen:And, the question is this, what does the Sabbath commandment actually have to do with each of us today? What does it have to do with our lives here and now? And, I'm hoping in our time together that we'll be able to leave here knowing how to better answer that question. And, from the outset, I want you to hear that this passage is for each of you who are showing up this morning, and you are tired. You're tired from your work, you're tired from all of your responsibilities, and you're tired from striving day after day, and you probably show up to this church this morning exhausted.
Josh Hausen:If this is you, and you're tired, I want you to hear this. This passage has a message for you today. But, maybe you aren't showing up to this church physically tired. Maybe instead you're what I'm going to refer to as spiritually weary. You show up knowing that you haven't been good enough this week.
Josh Hausen:You show up with the shame of maybe the things you have done, or maybe the guilt of things that you've left undone. And with this, you know that God has called you to live a certain way, and you haven't measured up. And, through all these ups and downs of your spiritual walk, you are just weary from trying. If that describes you today, I have good news for you as well. This message, this passage has a message for you.
Josh Hausen:And, finally, maybe you were showing it today, and you just feel lost. I have a feeling many of us can feel this way from time to time. Especially, at the events of this past year, many of us have just lost our way. We've lost our spiritual rhythms and practices, and we feel like we're not heading down any clear path. Maybe, you haven't even lost your way.
Josh Hausen:Maybe you feel like you've never found it. You don't even know what you're looking for. You just know that there is something out there that is missing, and you haven't found it. And, if that describes you, I want to say it one more time. This passage has a message for you today.
Josh Hausen:And, here is the message that I hope we hear, no matter which group you might fall into. I want each of us to hear that in Jesus there is rest for your weary soul. In case you need to hear it one more time, today, at this very moment, in Jesus, there is rest for your weary soul. So, let's learn about this as we look at Exodus chapter 20. I'm gonna read again starting in verse 8.
Josh Hausen:It says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 6 days you shall labor and do all your work. But the 7th day is a Sabbath to the Lord, and on it, you shall not do any work. You, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who's within your gates. In these first few verses, we get a picture of what it means to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy.
Josh Hausen:So, let's take a look at it together. The first thing that we begin with is a call to remember. This is the only commandment that begins this way, and it should cause us to slow down and ask why? Why do we start with this call to remember? After all, most of the commandments that you probably think of say, you shall or you shall not do something, And, it would have been very easy for this commandment to have just said, you shall not work on the 7th day.
Josh Hausen:But instead, it begins with a call to remember. I'd like to say that I think this is important for a couple reasons. The first is that the Sabbath commandment invites us to look backwards, and to remember what the Lord has done. We will see in a minute that the Lord modeled Sabbath for his people at creation, And, in Deuteronomy, we are told that the Sabbath commandment actually looks backwards to God's deliverance of His people out of Egypt. In both of these instances, the people of Israel are to look back at what the Lord has done, and they are to trust in him.
Josh Hausen:So, the word remember is important. It's important because it tells us to look back and remember what God has done. I also believe that there's a second reason for the use of the word remember. And, it's because this commandment is actually inviting us to do the active work of remembering. You know, we are forgetful people and we often don't realize that there is this forward looking piece of remembering.
Josh Hausen:It's about our practices, and it's our habits. It's these things that will form us in the future. And, the Sabbath commandment expects us to look at our own weekly schedules, and to make sure that we are actively working to remember to trust in God. We actually get a picture throughout the biblical story of what happens when the people of God forget to remember. We see how their forgetfulness plays out time after time.
Josh Hausen:The lord created them as a people for himself, though he saved them and redeemed them. And, though the people of God know this, they actually, they continually forget this. They chase after false gods, and forget what he has done for them. And, the end result that we see time after time is that they ultimately stop worshiping and following after him. And, like I said, we, too, are forgetful people and we are at risk of doing the exact same thing.
Josh Hausen:Therefore, the lord knew that we needed regular, rhythmic reminders of all that he has done, so that we don't forget. And for this reason, the Sabbath commandment begins with this call to remember, and invites us to look back at the act, the work that God has done, and to do the active work of not forgetting. We move on in verse 8, and it says that we are to remember to keep the Sabbath holy. So, what does that actually mean? Let's start with looking at the word, holy.
Josh Hausen:Now, this word is used throughout scripture to talk about God, and to talk about God's chosen people, Israel. And, if we were working your way through Exodus, you would have most recently seen it in Exodus chapter 19. When God says this to the people of Israel, hear these words from God. He says, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples. For all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Josh Hausen:For us to understand this, it's important for us to define the word holy. And, the way that we most often see this word used throughout scripture is for something to be considered set apart. It's for something to be distinct. For it to be wholly other than other things around it. And then, if we understand holy to mean set apart, we actually realize that there's one initial basic understanding of the word Sabbath, in the call for the Sabbath day.
Josh Hausen:Is that that day, the 7th day is to be distinctly different than the other days. It's to be set apart. That leads us to another question, and that is, how is it to be set apart? How is this to be done? And, in the passage we just read, we get a picture of it, when it says that it is to be set apart by ceasing from work.
Josh Hausen:We are stopped doing the work that we are doing on the other 6 days. Simply put, the people of God are to treat this day as holy, by ceasing from the work that they have done the other 6 days of the week. Now, this actually would have made a lot of sense to the people of Israel just by the use of the word Sabbath, because in Hebrew this word just simply means to cease or to stop. In this passage, we get clarity on what it looks like to cease and to stop, and to keep or treat this day as holy. Further, we read that this passage tells us who this is a command for.
Josh Hausen:It says that this is a command for you. But, not just for you, for your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, your animals, and even the sojourner who lives within your gates. Basically, this is intended to say that this is a commandment for all who follow Yahweh. Now, if we want to get a picture of what this looks like to keep the Sabbath holy, I think it's actually helpful for us to look a few chapters back in Exodus chapter 16. Because in this, chapter is the first time in scripture that we have people of God are actually given explicit instructions to keep the Sabbath.
Josh Hausen:In Exodus 16, we get the familiar story of God providing for his people by sending manna down from heaven. Now, in this story, the people of God, they actually began to grumble because of their lack of food. God had just freed them from Egypt, and he had led them across the Red Sea. But only a few chapters later, these people, they begin to grumble. And God's response is that he literally rains down bread from heaven to feed them.
Josh Hausen:He would do this every morning to provide for them and also to teach them about his provision. However, there was one exception to this provision, and that we read about in Exodus 16/23, when it says that the 7th day of the week was to be a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. It's here that God institutes the 1st corporate expectation for his people to observe the Sabbath. And, on that day, the Lord would not provide the manna from heaven. Instead, his people were expected to take a break from their work.
Josh Hausen:They would gather all that they needed on the ultimately, a story about God's provision. Because, before, ultimately a story about God's provision. Because, before the people of Israel ever even asked for anything, God was already in the business of providing for his people. He'd already saved them from their bondage and slavery, and he was leading them to the promised land right then. He was committed to caring for his children, providing for them.
Josh Hausen:However, they forgot all that he had done, and they began to grumble. And, God, out of his abundant mercy, gave them what they had asked for by providing bread from heaven. However, even in his provision, he knew that these people would begin to trust in themselves rather than in God. They would forget that he was responsible for sustaining and for providing. And, therefore, the Lord built a weekly lesson of dependence.
Josh Hausen:He A weekly reminder that God was the one who provided. Of course, we all know that God was providing every day, but on the 7th day, they actually got this visual reminder that it was not the work of their hands. Instead, they were to rest and to trust in God. Now, this is a really helpful picture of Sabbath rest, because it teaches us that this weekly ceasing from our personal working and striving, In it, we are reminded of the truth that God is actually the one who sustains us. And, as I said before, we are forgetful people, And, God knows this.
Josh Hausen:And, in the 4th commandment, he calls us to stop our working, so we can be reminded of our daily need for him. As we continue looking in chapter 20, we get to the last verse, verse 11, and it says this, for in 6 days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. He rested on the 7th day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and he made it holy. As I said earlier, the Sabbath commandment is about this act of remembering.
Josh Hausen:And this is exactly what we see being done in verse 11. It is looking back to the creation story in Genesis and remembering that on the 7th day, that God actually rested from His work. This reference to creation was key to the people of Israel, because they were given a glimpse into the actual origin of Sabbath rest. You see, Sabbath wasn't the creation of man. It wasn't something that even originated in their own time and place.
Josh Hausen:Instead, Sabbath rest found its origin in the creation story. It found its origin in the very actions of God. And, if they ever needed to believe that this was an important commandment, they could just look back at the very beginning of time and they'd be reminded that God wove Sabbath rest into the very fibers of creation. This is significant for us today as well. Because we need to realize that the foundation of Sabbath rest is actually founded in the creation story.
Josh Hausen:And, we need to recognize that God created us as creatures who need to have rhythms of work and rest. The unfortunate thing about this is that we live in a culture that doesn't really have the ability to rest. We've lost it. Our lives have been consumed by work. We are constantly tired, and on the brink of exhaustion.
Josh Hausen:That goes just as much for those of us inside the church, as it does for those outside. So, if you find yourself in that first group of people that I mentioned earlier, those who arrived at the church physically exhausted. Maybe you feel like you're at your end. You're actually in good company. Because as I prepare for this sermon, I read an article from the New Yorker.
Josh Hausen:It was called, burnout, modern affliction or human condition. In this article, it talked about the rampant effects that our overworking is having on our generation. And, it associates our exhaustion with this condition called burnout. Hear how this article describes burnout. Says to be burned out, is to be used up.
Josh Hausen:Like a battery, so depleted that it can't be recharged. In in people, unlike batteries though, it is said to produce the defining symptoms of burnout syndrome. Which are exhaustion, cynicism, and loss of efficacy. The article goes on to say that around the world, 3 out of 5 people say that they are burned out from their work. So I need to ask you.
Josh Hausen:Does this describe you? Do you ever feel exhausted to this point of burnout? And maybe that's even how you feel this morning. I know that if I I've been thinking about this this week. I've realized that I often live my life on this brink of burnout.
Josh Hausen:I've been deeply convicted that the Sabbath has something to teach me this week. And, I think that one of the reasons that so many of us are at this point of burnout is because we need to realize that our overworking is actually a part of our fallen human condition. We have to recognize that one of the things most affected by the fall is our work. Whether it's in our jobs, or taking care of your home, or in striving for success in any avenue of life, We are constantly giving more than we have to give. We're trying to do it all on our own.
Josh Hausen:Day after day, each of our responsibilities is asking for a 100% of our time and attention, and we try to give it. We're constantly working and striving, as if the world depended on us, We've lost sight of the Lord's provision. We've lost sight of the goodness of work. And, the end of this, we are running ourselves into the ground and we're not okay. But, it's in this place that God meets us with a remedy.
Josh Hausen:It's here that he provides rest for our weary souls. He says, I know you are prone to forgetfulness. I know you are tired, and I invite you to stop. To slow down, and to place your trust in me. I want you to remember who I am, and what I've done for you.
Josh Hausen:I have been faithful in the past, and I will be continue I will continue to be faithful to take care of you the future. And this is what God is offering us in the Sabbath commandment. It's available to all of us today. He's offering us rest, and I hope that you will find this as a balm for your weary soul. Cause, it's out of the graciousness of God that he offers us this weekly reminder of our own limitations.
Josh Hausen:And, he meets us there to say, I am enough. You are free to trust in me. As we begin to believe this, we will work differently and we will rest differently. God is inviting us into this today through the Sabbath commandment that we just read in Exodus. And, it'd be easy to stop there because that's a wonderful commandment and a wonderful offering from the Lord.
Josh Hausen:But, I think it's important for us to actually keep going and to see what the New Testament says about the Sabbath. Because much like the other commandments, the New Testament invites us to reimagine the Sabbath commandment in light of the arrival of Christ and the inauguration of his kingdom. So, today, I'd like to point out 2 developments that we see in the New Testament in regards to Sabbath. The first development that we see is that Jesus and the New Testament writers, they understand Sabbath to have been fulfilled in Jesus. We see this clearly in the teachings of both Jesus and Paul, and I'd like look at 2 passages quickly.
Josh Hausen:The first is in Matthew chapter 12. It's here that we get the story of Jesus and his disciples picking grain on the Sabbath. And, as they're doing this, the Pharisees, you know, they're they're looking to trap him, and they say, it's unlawful for you to be doing these things on the Sabbath. But it's at this very moment that Jesus responds with something that would have been so much more offensive than any work that he could have been doing. He says this, I tell you, something than the greater than the temple is here.
Josh Hausen:And we know he's talking about himself. Then, he goes on to say, and if you had known what this means that I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. In making this statement, Jesus wants them to know one very important thing: That he is the one to whom the Sabbath had pointed all along. And, now he is here and he is Lord over it.
Josh Hausen:And, in light of this, we are to understand the Sabbath commandment differently. The same idea is actually conveyed by Paul in both Romans and Colossians. I wanna read for you from Colossians chapter 2, starts in verse 16. Paul says, let no one pass judgment on you in question of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or Sabbath. For these are shadows of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Josh Hausen:You see, Paul understood Sabbath in much the same way that he understands the rest of the ceremonial laws. Now, while they were very important for a season, their primary objective was to point to this coming Messiah. And, once the Messiah had come and inaugurated a new kingdom, Paul believed that they could no longer carry the same obligation that they did before. Therefore, Paul believed that the Sabbath had been fulfilled, and Sabbath observance was now a matter of the conscience of the individual. This is why in Romans, we hear Paul say that one person assumes one day is better than another.
Josh Hausen:One another seems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day though, observes it in honor of the Lord. One way I think we can understand what Paul is saying here, is that he's thinking about the Sabbath and ceremonial laws a lot like the way we think of road signs, pointing us ahead to something important. I really got a picture of this a few years ago, when Laura and I had an opportunity to go to Italy on a vacation.
Josh Hausen:While we were there, we rented a car, and one of the my favorite parts was that we actually drove around the country while we were there. But I have to be honest, when I first got in that car, I was incredibly intimidated. Had to get adjusted to new traffic laws. I had to get adjusted to signs being in a language I didn't understand. And honestly, it was a pretty jarring moment for me to get on that interstate for the first time.
Josh Hausen:However, I remember this feeling of relief that came to me when I saw the first big green sign on the side of the road that said the name of the city that I was heading towards. It looked like any sign that you might think of when you're driving down the interstate. I'm sure you've seen them when you're driving to Atlanta or to Nashville. The sign was just this relief to me because it told me I was heading in the right direction. But, there's a funny thing about signs like this is that, they are more important the farther away you are from that location.
Josh Hausen:In fact, as you get into the city, you no longer see the sign that says Atlanta or Nashville. You've actually arrived, and it starts pointing to something new. And, Paul understands the Sabbath in much the same way. He says that, these things are a shadow, but they ultimately pointed towards the real thing, which is Christ. And for this reason, he saw the Sabbath as important, but it need to be seen differently now that Christ had arrived.
Josh Hausen:In both these passages from Matthew and Colossians, we learn something really important for our modern understanding of Sabbath. It's that the ultimate point of the Sabbath was to point us towards Christ, who is Lord of the Sabbath. Because of this, we can now reinterpret what it looks like to keep this commandment in light of his arrival. Is because of his arrival that we actually get to the second development that we see in the New Testament. The second development is that in addition to physical rest, the New Testament writers teach us that Sabbath is now ultimately pointing towards a spiritual rest for the people of God.
Josh Hausen:In Hebrews, we read that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest, has also rested from his works as God did from his. I think, this is actually one of the most important things I want us to hear today. It's that in Christ, we are now being offered spiritual rest for our weary souls. The promise of Sabbath rest still remains, but is promising us so much more than just physical rest.
Josh Hausen:It's pointing to the rest that we receive in salvation. And, the author of Hebrews tells us how we enter this spiritual rest. He says, for we who have believed, enter. He is saying that each and every one of us are being offered spiritual rest just by believing in Christ. It's not by being a perfect person.
Josh Hausen:It's not by keeping all of His commandments. And, it's not by trying to be a provider or savior on our own. Instead, it's through belief in the one who saves. And, this is what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. He provided a way for us to find complete and total rest in him.
Josh Hausen:Rest from our spiritual works, rest from our striving to earn favor with God, and even rest from every attempt to try to keep all the rules. So, please hear this today, That you, if you have faith that Jesus is Lord, and that he died on the cross for forgiveness of sins, you have already entered this rest. For those of you who might find yourself in the second group that I mentioned this morning, those who are spiritually weary, I want to offer you this word of hope. You are already in the spiritual rest of God. You can cease from striving to perform.
Josh Hausen:You can stop trying to earn favor with God. You have already arrived. And, you have arrived out of nothing that you have done on your own. Instead, you have entered the spiritual rest of God through faith alone in Christ alone, who has redeemed you. So, for those of you who are spiritually tired, I want to remind you of the words of Jesus.
Josh Hausen:He says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I hope you hear this. Jesus is saying, come to me and I will give you rest.
Josh Hausen:My greatest hope for each of us today is that we would believe that in Christ, we find the rest that we are desperately seeking for. He has done all of the work. He has redeemed his people through his death on the cross. And now, all we have to do is to come to him and to believe. My hope is that you would do this today.
Josh Hausen:That you would see this as actually an extension of the Sabbath commandment. That you would cease your striving and working, and that you would rest completely in him this morning. This is an invitation that's open to all. This is especially true if you find yourself in that third group of pe people that I mentioned this morning. The group that feels lost.
Josh Hausen:If you showed up today and you were looking for something that you have never found, If you showed up today and you know that you need something, and this idea of spiritual rest seems so foreign to you, I wanna encourage you, run to Jesus. And, for those of you who have lost your way, for those of you who have trusted in Jesus at one time, but now you feel distant from God, you know that you are nowhere near as close to God as you used to be, and you are having trouble even mustering up any energy to try. I wanna say the same thing to you. Run to Jesus. He is gentle, and he will receive you with open arms.
Josh Hausen:His yoke is easy and his burden is light. Turn to him and believe. In him, you will find the rest that your soul yearns for. So, as we end today, I want to return to the question that I asked at the beginning. What does the Sabbath have to do with us today?
Josh Hausen:I hope that we will leave here believing that it has everything to do with us. We are a people in need of both physical and spiritual rest, and the Sabbath offers both of this to us today. The Sabbath offers us physical rest as we incorporate these weekly rhythms of stopping from our work, so we can delight in him and trust in him. Yes, we have seen that the new testament gives us a new lens with which we are to see the Sabbath. But, as we look back and remember, we are reminded that the Sabbath is actually ingrained in the fibers of creation.
Josh Hausen:And, I hope that all of us will take this, we will look at our work and rest patterns this week. We'll ask the Lord to reveal any ways that he wants us to incorporate Sabbath into our weekly rhythms. And finally, Sabbath offers us spiritual rest. As we turn to Christ alone, and rest from our works, In Sabbath observance, we now get to stop from all of our trying to earn favor with God on our own. I hope that we will be a people who truly believe this.
Josh Hausen:And, that each of us will experience the true spiritual rest that comes from faith in Christ. It's only when we enter the spiritual rest that we will receive the rest that our weary souls are truly longing for. Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we are tired people. We desperately need the rest that only you can provide.
Josh Hausen:Thank you that in Christ, you offer us this rest. I pray that you would teach us to trust in you and to lay down our attempts to do it on our own. Help us to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy. We pray that you would help us to rest entirely in you. We pray these things in the name of Christ.
Josh Hausen:Amen.
