The Necessity of Sabbath
This Week’s Key Verse: Matthew 11:28 (NASB) “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take a moment and pray that the Lord will speak to you in this time of study.
Please Read: Genesis 2:1-3; Psalm 121; Mark 2:23-28
Devotional today written by Fred Teagle
In Mark 2:27 Jesus says something that sets the religious establishment on their collective ear. He says, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” The Pharisees spent huge amounts of time and energy making sure that they and everyone around them kept the Sabbath. Their rabbis had spent centuries regulating every possible human activity to the last gnat’s breath to make sure no one violated the Law concerning the Sabbath. No stone was left unturned in the pursuit of making sure no stone was turned on the Sabbath.
So why did He say it? He said it, because it was true, and because mankind needed a rest. God had, from the very beginning, designed man to rest. Why did God rest from His labors on the seventh day? Was He tired? What a perfectly silly idea. The Creator of the Universe has no need of rest for Himself. Among the attributes of the Godhead is omnipotence. He is all powerful, and if He has all power, then by definition He does not grow weary.
The Creator rested as an example to us, because we are limited. He sanctified the idea of rest, because He knew we needed it. As a culture, nobody needs it more than we Americans do. We work longer hours and take less vacation than any other industrialized nation. We believe, as Sam in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle,” said, “Work hard, that’ll save you. Only work will see you through this.” Sam is talking about his grief at the loss of his wife, but he could be talking about any crisis. It is the way we try to solve every problem. It is a cultural idol.
The only problem with this approach is that it is outside the design parameters. Anyone knows when you purchase a machine it is a very good idea to read the owner’s manual. If you don’t, then you cannot operate the machine the way it was designed to be operated. If you don’t, at best, it will not last as long as it was intended. At worst, you will destroy it in short order. My friend, Mike Karslake, once said, “The human body is a wonderful thing! You can do almost anything you want to it for forty years.” Anyone over forty, however, knows the reality of living with a body that has been, to use an equestrian term, “run hard and put up wet” during our younger days.
But it is not just our bodies that suffer from this failure to recognize and respect God’s design. Our souls; that cluster of intellect, emotion, and will, that make up so much of our being, begin to fray. And subjected to enough abuse over a long enough period of time, we will see signs of damage. Our spirits also begin to be distanced from the Spirit of God.
Let me give you a couple of images that help me keep this concept straight. The first is from one of Nate Atwood’s sermons. I believe he preached this the first year he was at KPC. Nate talked about a study Bible; you know, the ones with the wide margins around the text so that you can take notes as you go along. He said, over time, the margins get full and there is no longer any place to write. Then, he said, our lives are like those Bibles. At the center of the page, there should be the Word of God. But the margins are where we fill in our particular interpretation of God, the expression of His Spirit through the lens of our lives. The problem for many of us is that we fill up the margins with our own activities and leave no room for God to write.
The second is from my friend, Mike Moses, the pastor of Lake Forest Community Church in Lake Norman, NC. Mike is a church planter. I first visited his church when they were meeting in a YMCA gym in Huntersville, NC. But they had started in even humbler beings, a roller rink. I again visited his church a few weeks after they moved into their beautiful new facility. Their place of worship is not in any way traditional, with a stage and black painted ceilings. And as not to forget their humble beginnings, the disco ball from the old roller rink is mounted in the ceiling. And during the worship set, they sometimes light it off. The Sunday I was there, the stage was set like a soda shop with lunch counter and barstools. A pot rack with various pots and pans was hanging over the counter. After the worship, a group of musicians mounted the stage. As their special musical offering, they began a percussion medley using the pots and pans. To my surprise it was quite uplifting, a very rhythmic, Caribbean sounding thing. They finished and Mike took the stage to deliver his message. Then he invited the musicians back. He asked them to do a few bars of their solo. Again, very nice! Then he said, “Play it again without the rests.” What ensued was 15 seconds of nerve-shattering noise. They had played exactly the same notes on the same instruments (albeit, pots and pans). But there were no rests, therefore no rhythm, therefore no music. Then Mike said, “Our lives are like that. No rest, no music! A life without rest is just noise.”
Do I think you have to sit around all day Sunday and do nothing? No, I am not a strict Sabbatarian. But I am a passionate Sabbatarian. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” How we best express Sabbath depends on how God made us individually. But He also said, “Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” So if He is the Lord of your life, your life will contain Sabbath. Sabbath is God’s recreation for our re-creation. He practiced it because we need it.
Fred Teagle, Elder
This devotional is based on the message “Rest” (Heart – Part 4) by Pastor Nate Atwood. If you would like to hear it in its entirety, go to KPC.
