Sabbath Rest
We're All In Need of Rest
As I write this, it’s Labor Day Weekend, a time meant for rest from our labor. And thank goodness, because for many of us, we are laboring to the point of total exhaustion!
Many of you are laboring at your place of work. Things never seem to stop. Projects keep coming, patients keep coming, deadlines keep coming.
Some of you are laboring at school—the classwork, homework, projects, tests, practices, games, meets, tutorials. It's always something.
Others are laboring at home—housework, dishes, laundry, helping with kids' homework, bath time and bedtime routines. It's always something.
Many of you are even laboring in retirement! I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say they're busier now than when they were working.
The truth is, we're all laboring. We're busy. We're physically tired.
But It's More Than Physical Exhaustion
It's not just the physical busyness that weighs us down. Many of you are laboring in your relationships—the fighting, bickering, arguing. You feel the weight of conflict and can't seem to find happiness.
Add to that worry and anxiety about illness, finances, inflation, and unrest in our country and world.
And don't forget the laboring over sin in your life—that struggle that's been weighing on you. The guilt and shame are always there. The distance you feel from God. The emptiness and dissatisfaction. There's so much laboring we do to try and get rid of it all!
If it's not your own sin, maybe it's the sin someone else committed against you. You've been wronged, and there's anger, resentment, and bitterness. The tension keeps your blood pressure up and steals your sleep.
Thank goodness for Labor Day Weekend, right? A three-day weekend to finally rest, relax, recharge, and hit the reset button.
The Problem with Weekend Rest
Labor Day Weekend will be great... until Tuesday comes. Then we're back to the grind, back to the busyness, conflict, anger, resentment, guilt, shame, worry, and fear.
But does it really have to be that way? Is there a way to experience more rest than just occasional weekends?
Actually, there is.
God's Pattern of Rest
The author of Hebrews tells us in chapter 4, verses 9-10:
"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."
This Sabbath rest involves entering into "God's rest" and resting from our works, just as God did from His. What's this referring to? Creation.
Genesis 2:1-2 tells us:
"By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work."
God wasn't tired—He doesn't get tired. "Rested" means He ceased the work He was doing because it was perfect. Nothing else needed to be added. Everything necessary had been created, so God rested from His work.
Adam and Eve's First Experience
Think about this: Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day. All the work of creating their world and environment was finished before they existed. When God created them, what were they entering into?
God's rest!
God had ceased from all creating activity—it was all finished, complete, with nothing more to be added. Adam and Eve simply entered into God's rest from the moment they were created, partaking of all that was finished.
They lived in God's rest, enjoying His finished work that provided everything they needed... until sin entered the world and that rest was broken.
The Labor That Sin Brings
When sin entered, Adam and Eve experienced unrest—not just physical and mental, but spiritual unrest. They could never find true peace, contentment, value, worth, or satisfaction apart from God.
This is what we're all born into. Separated from God by sin, we come into this world searching for approval, purpose, meaning, significance, worth, and affection. And we begin laboring to find it!
We become addicted to performance and religion, laboring to achieve approval from others and from God. We labor through religious duties trying to remove guilt, shame, and condemnation.
We think: "IF I can just get to that point where I've done the right religious duties or performed better in life, THEN I'll finally rest! I can stop laboring for the approval, purpose, meaning, satisfaction, and worth I crave!"
Jesus: The Source of True Rest
But the author of Hebrews says there's a Sabbath rest for God's people, and to enter it, you must rest from YOUR works.
How is this possible? The answer is found in the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:28:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
Rest isn't found in performance, religious duties, or vacations. Rest is found in a Person—Jesus.
The Finished Work of Christ
Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Remember, sin got us into this rat race in the first place. Jesus had to deal with our sin problem because that was the root issue that disrupted God's rest.
On the cross, Jesus laid all the sins of the entire world—past, present, and future—onto Himself and paid the penalty, which was death.
As Jesus took His last breath, He cried out in John 19:30: "It is finished."
What was finished? The work necessary to pay for your sin and provide forgiveness, salvation, and reconciliation back into relationship with God.
All that work was done. He rested from His work. Hebrews 10:11-12 explains:
"Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God."
Why did He sit down? Because His work was finished. When work is complete, you sit down and rest.
Entering His Rest
Now Jesus, God incarnate, has rested from His work on the cross, and we can enter into His rest!
When we quit trusting in our own performance or religious duties and instead put our faith in Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, we enter into His rest.
In that rest, we have:
All the approval we've been trying to earn our entire lives
All the value and worth we've been looking for
The peace, contentment, and satisfaction we've craved and pursued
We have all of that now in Christ! He is our rest!
Why Don't We Feel Rested?
But why do those of us who have faith in Jesus still feel tired, unworthy, undervalued? Why don't we feel the peace, satisfaction, and contentment?
The answer is found in the story of the Israelites. God rescued them from slavery in Egypt and was leading them to the Promised Land where they could rest. But they didn't get to enter that rest and wandered in the desert for 40 years.
Why? Hebrews 3:19 tells us:
"So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief."
Instead of resting in God's work and trusting Him, they walked in unbelief and tried to handle things with their own works.
The Key: Walking by Faith
Jesus is your rest, dwelling at the core of your being. Our problem is that we focus on our soul (feelings, thoughts, choices) or things in the world around us.
We think: "If I can just get to a certain point out here in the world, my feelings and thoughts would be different. If I can just find rest for my body from physical work—get a nap and a day off—then I'll be good."
But we're right back into it after that nap or day off. We're looking in the wrong place.
Instead, we must look deep into our spirit where we are in union with Jesus—the One who is Life, the One who is our Sabbath Rest! When we do, we trust and walk by faith, believing that He is our Sabbath Rest and that we already have rest in Him above the noise in our soul and world.
Experiencing Rest in the Midst of Labor
As we renew our minds to truth and walk by faith in who God is and all we have in Christ, we begin to experience His rest.
This doesn't mean all work and activity will stop. We won't cease from all work, but we will cease from ourselves being the point of reference in our work!
We'll stop looking to ourselves and what we're doing to get where we need to be. Instead, we'll look to Jesus as our point of reference to see all that we already have in Him.
When we enter into the work and activity of life, we'll be doing it from a place of rest, and it will be experienced in a radically different way.
Rest That Transforms Everything
You can go back into the laboring of work, school, and home responsibilities but experience it differently—from a place of rest deep within you.
You can labor through relational conflict differently—from a place of deep rest within you. The conflict doesn't have to stop for you to experience true rest because you already have that rest in Jesus.
You can labor through all the things happening in our country and world differently. You don't need everything to stop or go your way to experience rest—because you have it in Christ.
You can labor through sin in your life or sin committed against you because you don't have to reach a certain point of earned approval or get even with others to finally rest.
The Choice Before Us
There is a Sabbath rest for the people of God. If you've put your faith in Jesus for salvation, you have it.
The question is:
Will you continue laboring to get somewhere you think you need to be in life to experience rest? Or will you experience the rest you already have in Jesus as you walk through the laboring of life?
My prayer is that all of us who are weary and burdened will come to Jesus, who gives us rest.
