Sermon Tone Analysis

*Context: The Sabbath*

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*Text: Exodus 20 : 8-11*

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*St James 1st June 2008 And I also preach it at Freemantle and Lordshill *

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Introduction

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So what does the word* Sabbath* make us think about?

Does it bring a smile to our faces a frown?

Is it something we look forward to?

Or dread?

Does it mean restrictions or freedom?

Well let’s look and see what it means to God!

 

*A) What’s it for?*

This commandment begins with a positive word.

It’s one of the two commandments not stated negatively.

“Remember,” it begins.

The word for* remember* in the Hebrew is* emphatic*

 

We are being told to *stop and really think *about what the Sabbath is all about

 

The word “Sabbath” is from the Hebrew word meaning “cease” or “to rest.”

And it points back to the* real beginning*, when God made the world.

It took Him six days to make the world….and

then he stopped work

 

He then instituted a seventh day as Sabbath, a holiday on a day of rest on *which he celebrated His finished work*

 

And by so doing instituted the *rhythm of life* that Gods wanted his creatures to enjoy

 

Six days to work and one to rest!

The principle behind this commandment is twofold.

First there must be a rhythm to life, a rhythm of work and rest, certainly a rhythm of worship in the midst of our ongoing life.

The second principle is that all time belongs to God.

One day out of seven, set aside as a special day, serves to remind us of the blessedness of all our days

 

The true Sabbath it is a holiday…a special day ….set aside by God to be enjoyed, a day of blessing and fruitfulness in fellowship with God …it is a good day not a bad day

 

A day when people could stopped everything *they normally do* and refocus on the God and his plans for there lives 

 

A day when the could recharged there engines…so that could be ready for the new week envisioned and empowered by the God to serve him in there daily lives 

 

As they remembered not only not they had a great creator but also they had a great saviour who was leading them to there Promise rest….

In Canaan….to the rest of a land flowing with milk and honey…That God was going to give to them by His grace…not by there own efforts

 

So Sabbath rest was about people stopping their own efforts and putting themselves in the place were they could receive divine provision to produce fruitfulness in their lives

    

*A day of festival*, a day of worship for the people of God.

A day when the Almighty could transform there mundane existence into one of meaning

 

*Now that seems a good day!*

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*B) But that’s not the real Sabbath *

 

But we must recognize that this Sabbath rest and was not the real Sabbath

 

It was just a shadow of the real Sabbath.

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*All the Old Testament shadows pointed to Christ,* so did this shadow

 

When the Lord came, and died and rose again, and He made it possible for the true fulfilment of God's intention for the Sabbath to start operating; the picture was no longer needed.

The weekly Sabbath ended at the cross.

Believers can now enjoy Sabbath rest in there lives 24~/7, they can *now live in total dependence in Christ everyday*…not living by there own efforts but by obedience to Him

 

As Hebrews 4 tells us that the Israelites failed to enter the rest that God had for them, because of un-belief….but that *there is still a rest* available for those who do believe ….who are ready to stop living there own way and start living Gods way   

 

That is what the true Sabbath is, to cease from your own labours, our own efforts, and our own activity; to cease from our own works, and depend on the work of another

 

That is what really entering into the Sabbath rest of God is really about

 

This is why Paul cries, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me," (Gal 2:20).

For the realization had dawn on him that we he was  no longer living his own  life but had surrendered to the author of life, who now living his life in and through him

 

 Jesus himself said, "It is the Father who dwells in me who does the work," (John 14:10).

"The Son can do nothing by himself," (John 5:19).

And Philippians says 2 “It is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure,"

 

So the secret of true Christian life is to cease from dependence on one's own activity, and to rest in dependence upon the activity of another who dwells within.

That is fulfilling the Sabbath, the true Sabbath.

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The Sabbath rest is a picture of our rest in Christ through salvation (Heb.

4:3; see Matt.

11:28).

The rest of Canaan is a picture of our present rest as we claim our inheritance in Christ by obeying his word, the first is the rest of salvation; the second is the rest of submission.

But there is a third rest that enters into the discussion, that future rest that all believers will enjoy with God.

“There remains therefore, a rest to the people of God” (Heb.

4:9).

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*The rest of Heaven *

 

When all of our labours and battles would have ended (Rev.

14:13)

 

God always knew that of ourselves we would never be the person he wants us to be

 

Therefore he has designed an adequate provision for our weakness, teaching us how to operate on an entirely different basis, to no longer look to oneself but to look to the one who dwells within; to expect him to do something through you, using our mind, our will, our emotions, our feelings, but it is he who does the work.

*That’s the rest he wants us to enter *

 

But you might say why this is so difficult to do?

I know what is said about how to rest, but I try it and it doesn't work.

Why?

Why do we fail?"

The answer is given, I think, in a word of the Lord Jesus, recorded in Matthew 11, words we well know:

 

"Come to me, all who labour 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."

(Matthew 11:28-30)

Notice *that twice *in that passage is the word rest.

One rest is given, the other is found

 

One is experienced when we first come to Jesus Christ.

*He gives us rest.*

You were resting on the work of another.

Christ paid it all; you were freely forgiven.

What a sense of rest that was!

He gave it to you.

But there is another rest here, one that we find

 

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and you will find rest," (Matt 11:29-30a)

 

A yoke is always made for two, never for one.

Jesus is saying.

"Enter into the yoke with me you on one side; I on the other."

Learn from me….I have learnt what to means to live in total obedience to my father 

 

Yoke up with me….and

I will teach it to you, I will help you to live in obedience to the Father and enjoy the rest that comes with that

 

The rest that come’s form allowing God to direct you life

 

The rest that comes when you give up the right to determine how you should live your own life

 

I will help you to remove yourself from the spotlight, out of the centre of things, and put God there

 

I will begin to teach you humility, how to be content with letting someone else get all the credit.

This is the way to enter into the joy and glory and excitement of the rest which God has provided

 

As we do what the Bible says and die to our own desires and experience the fruitfulness of new life in Christ

 

Rest is the secret of human fruitfulness.

As we set aside everything else from which we might derive strength and merit submit to Gods will for our lives we will start to produce the life of Jesus in our lives…the character of Jesus in our lives  

 

That is the secret of life.

This is why Jesus said, "If any man will save his life, he shall lose it.

But if he shall lose his life for my sake, he shall find it," (cf, Matt 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24).

He will find rest; and enjoy *God's divine provision for his life *