The Sabbath Of The New Creation

Well, good morning, church. Can you please turn your Bibles to Luke, chapter 6?

We'll be examining this morning Luke, chapter 6, verses 1 through 11. When you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's word.

On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.

But some of the Pharisees said, why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath? And Jesus answered them, have you not read what

David did when he was hungry? He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him.

He said to them, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. On another

Sabbath, he entered a synagogue and was teaching. And a man was there whose right hand was withered.

The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath so that they might find a reason to accuse him.

But he knew their thoughts and said to the man with the withered hand, come and stand here.

And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the

Sabbath to do good or do harm, to save life or to destroy it? After looking around at them all, he said to him, stretch out your hand.

And he did so. And his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and disgust of one another what they might do to Jesus.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Let's pray.

Sovereign Lord, we do come before you this morning recognizing that there is a rest and a rest for the people of God.

Lord Jesus, as we enter into this rest on this Lord's Day, on this

Christian Sabbath, may we receive the true Sabbath that comes from knowing you, being found in you, not having a righteousness of our own that comes through our own works, through our own efforts, but rather this rest that comes from knowing you, our true peace, our true hope, our true stay.

Lord, help us in this moment to recognize all that you do and all that you are for the people of God.

And we pray these things in your precious name. Amen. There's a great disparity in our world today, particularly in the

West, particularly in this culture in which we are living in. I'm not sure if this is verifiable or true, but I heard that there was recently an episode of Jeopardy.

I didn't know people still watch that show. But apparently there's this episode of Jeopardy where the question was asked, what is the completion of this phrase?

Our father who blank, our father who art in heaven blank be your name.

And they gave the folks four options. And no one on the show was able to give them the proper word.

Which is our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

There's a great disparity in our culture just over the last generation where the majority of people, even non -churchgoing people, maybe 30, 40, 50 years ago, would be able to complete that sentence, complete that phrase.

And yet today in our culture, in our day and time now, people are so far from God, so removed from a

Christian worldview that they can't even complete the simple phrase of our

Lord's Prayer. The world is going into further and further madness, further and further sin and degeneracy.

And people don't even, I would suspect the reason why they couldn't figure out the word is because they probably don't know what hallowed means, which means holy.

The world is falling apart and moving away more and more from a holy and righteous

God. And it's tiring, isn't it? Isn't it tiring as Christians to live in this fallen world?

Isn't it tiring to live in a place in which morals and God's goodness is trampled on as if it's nothing, as if it's not even a memory to be remembered anymore?

We are living in strange times, beloved. But I would submit to you that the strangest of our times is because the people of God are ignoring their responsibility and duties.

And one of the reasons I think we're failing to do that which God requires of His people is not because we're doing too little, but it's often because we're doing too much in areas where He's not called us to do much.

And we're also doing too little in respect to entering the rest that He's called us to partake in.

In this scripture this morning in Luke chapter six, we see there's gonna be two stories, two narratives that we're gonna follow that focus on the

Sabbath rest of the people of God. Particularly in chapter six, verse one, it starts this way.

On a Sabbath, so it reminds us of this Sabbath day while He was going through the grain fields,

His disciples, the disciples of Christ, plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.

So put yourself in the picture here. Jesus, beautifully going through the fields.

I was actually driving through some fields a couple days ago, and I envisioned in my mind's eye the

Lord Jesus walking in the fields because Jesus loves using these analogies of grain, of fields.

In fact, elsewhere in scripture, in Matthew chapter 13, Jesus says this about the fields, and He says that the fields represent what?

Do you remember what Jesus says? The fields represent the world, represents the world.

There Jesus is walking in the midst of the fields, of the grain fields, and which He later on goes on to say that represents the world.

And the taking and the plucking of these fields representing elsewhere in scripture the separation between God's people and the wicked unbelievers.

And as Jesus is traveling through the grain fields, His disciples were from, they pluck and eat some of the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands on a

Sabbath, on the day of rest. And what happens next is in verse two, some of the

Pharisees see this, and they say this. Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the

Sabbath? On the Sabbath? Now, first and foremost, you may not know, who are these guys?

Who are the Pharisees? And what gives them the right to now question and put

Jesus under a microscope? Remember, as you're following this narrative of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, who is

Jesus Christ? We know that He is eternal God, come in human flesh. And who are these other men?

These Pharisees to judge Jesus and His work, to judge His disciples.

Well, if you were in our Sunday school this morning, we looked at Matthew 23 in our Sunday school as we're going through a series on Roman Catholicism.

And in Matthew 23, the Pharisees are said to sit in the seat of Moses.

That is to say that they put themselves in Moses' chair, in Moses' seat, and Moses is the great lawgiver of God's people, and they are now imposing themselves as the new lawgivers.

And they look at Moses' law concerning the Sabbath, the Sabbath being the fourth commandment that we're to remember to observe.

And now they're putting themselves in that place, in that seat of Moses, and they're saying, what are you doing?

They're policing God's law. They're the keepers, police of God's law, and they're saying to those who are following Jesus, why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the

Sabbath, which was what? Well, first of all, you're following the notes. I want you to write this in, the notes.

The disciples of Jesus plucked and ate grains. They were accused of breaking the Sabbath. They were accused of breaking the

Sabbath because, of all things, they were hungry.

They were hungry. Is it lawful to be hungry on the Sabbath? Is it lawful to eat on the

Sabbath? Think of the implications that are here. First, we're gonna examine a little bit on what exactly is the

Sabbath and what is the significance of it before we critique a little bit more what the Pharisees are doing here and what the disciples of Christ are doing here as well.

But the first line, again, the disciples of Jesus plucked and ate grains. They were accused of breaking the

Sabbath because they were hungry, because they were eating. Now, again, what is the

Sabbath? Beloved, what's about to unfold before us stretches all the way back, going backwards in time, all the way to the very beginning, to creation itself.

We're gonna examine a couple of verses in the Bible. So I want you to keep your finger in Luke or your ribbon in Luke, and I want you to turn to the very first book of the

Bible, Genesis chapter two. And you're likely familiar with the first chapter of Genesis.

Obviously, we're in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. He begins to give us in how six days the

Lord created the heavens and the earth, and in the seventh day, he rests. And notice that after God's creative works, in those six days of creation, verses one to three says in chapter two of Genesis, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts of them.

And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done and rested on the seventh day from all his works that he had done.

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it,

God rested from all his works that he had done in creation. Remember earlier, the analogy or the story of the

Jeopardy? They could not say hallowed be thy name. The word hallowed meaning holy.

What did God set apart as holy? What's the first thing that he consecrates as holy? It is this particular day.

He says this day is holy, set apart, consecrated.

That's what the word holy means in Scripture. For something to be made holy means that it's consecrated, dedicated for a particular purpose, and set apart from other things that may be different or mundane.

God had set apart a particular day for his people to rest.

It is the day which he rested from his creative works. And so the

Sabbath is God's ordained day of rest, which is, write this in the notes if you're following along in today's insert.

The Sabbath is God's ordained day of rest. Ordained meaning that God chose it.

You don't get to choose it, he chose it. He establishes what is right.

And God established a day of rest for his people. And when God rested from creation on the seventh day, which you write this in the notes, on the seventh day.

Now for us today, what is the seventh day? Well, if you look at a calendar and the way the weeks are marked out in our calendars, the week starts on what day?

I'm very glad you said that. Most people think it's Monday, because it's the day where they go back to work.

And they say, oh, the first day of the week is Monday, therefore we keep going all the way, then Sunday is the seventh day. But no, actually, the first day of the week is

Sunday. Which would put the seventh day as Saturday.

There's an interesting reason then, you might be asking yourself, well, Pastor, we missed it by a day.

We're here on Sunday, and we're called to meet and to rest on Saturday. So why did the semipotency?

We'll go into that a little bit later. That answer will be given. But notice that from the creation,

God had set forth a pattern. And on the seventh day, he rested. Later on, he will command his people to rest likewise.

And I want you to turn to God's word in Exodus 31, in the giving of God's law, and what

God commands of his people in Exodus 31. And I also want to make a quick commentary on what we just read in Genesis chapter six.

I'm sorry, Genesis chapter two. And what we read in Exodus chapter 30, one.

Again, sorry, Exodus chapter 31. And notice what it says in verse 16 and 17.

This is God's law concerning the Sabbath. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the

Sabbath, that's the seventh day, observing the Sabbath through their generations as a covenant forever.

It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days, the

Lord made heaven and earth. And on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed.

So one of the commentaries I want to make on this text of scripture, stemming all the way back from Genesis to here in Exodus chapter 31, is that God created the heavens and the earth in how many days?

Six. We believe that God created the heavens and the earth in six days.

Now, that may fly in the face of what you may have learned in school. That might fly in the face of what you've heard in different areas of life where the earth is billions of years old.

And you may sound even silly to even utter those words, that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and he rested on the seventh.

What foolishness, how foolish must you be in order to believe in such a thing?

And I always remember, Pastor Conley told me once, and I'm sorry to share this with Pastor Conley, but he was talking to some coworkers at Google at the time, and he was saying to one of his coworkers that yeah, he believes that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and his coworker was just dumbfounded.

He couldn't believe that someone as smart as Pastor Conley could believe that the heavens and the earth were created in six days.

And yet, here we are in a room filled with pretty smart people. Maybe some of you guys are also engineers.

Maybe some of you guys are scientists. Maybe some of you guys are very well -educated. And we believe what the Bible teaches, that God created the heavens and the earth in six days.

Now, why do we believe that? Because God said so. Because God said so.

Now, we can stand before others and debate, go back and forth. In fact, my seminary professor did not have the same opinion as I do.

I believe that God created the heavens and the earth in six literal days. My professor in seminary said that no, the earth is old, and it took billions of years to create, and he still holds on to the

Bible as the inspired Word of God, and we disagree vehemently on how to interpret such things.

But I believe because not only what is written in Genesis, but what is written elsewhere in Scripture, that the

Bible is particularly clear on this, that God created the heavens and the earth in six days.

And that's important. Why? Because God's Word is the authority by which we live our lives.

And there is no one more authoritative than the Lord Jesus Christ. And the

Lord Jesus Christ, as he speaks about the Sabbath, is pointing towards a creation ordinance.

He's looking backwards, and he's looking upon creation itself. And Jesus affirms the creation model, not only in the text of Scripture dealing with the

Sabbath, but elsewhere in the Scriptures, even in Matthew 19, for instance, where he, again, speaks of the beginning, and affirms the teaching of Moses, affirms the law that was given.

For Moses was likely the one who wrote Genesis, chapter one and two, and he is clearly the one who is the recipient of the book of Exodus, as he is speaking these very words of God, that the

Sabbath was a sign of a covenant forever. In that, in six days, the

Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed. Now, this may be a hard thing for some to swallow in terms of the reliability of the

Scriptures. Some people might say, well, how can we trust the Bible, then, if it's gonna say something so silly, so ridiculous, that heaven and earth was created in six days?

How can we believe that, when science is overwhelmingly that it was 4 .5 billion years ago?

Well, when I was younger, it was actually like four billion years ago, then it became 4 .2 billion years, now it's 4 .5, and 20 years from now, it'll be 5 .5

billion years ago, so which one is it? Who are we going to trust? The shifting sands of people interpreting certain things in a tube, or are we going to trust in the fidelity of God's Word given to us here in Scripture?

Let's trust God on it, why? Because he did it, he made it, he was there, and as he, as the

Lord God, Yahweh, Jehovah, even questions or begins to refute

Job, in the book of Job, in chapters 39 and onwards, and 37 onward, he begins to say, where were you when

I laid the foundations of the earth? Where was man when he laid the foundations of the earth?

Who could know these things but God? And God has spoken, he's revealed these things to us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, it is right and appropriate for us to remember that the Sabbath day is indeed a day of rest that was ordained from creation, and I want you to write this in your notes, a

Sabbath is an everlasting sign between God and his people. It is a forever covenant, it is a forever arrangement for God and his people to enjoy.

Now, what was the purpose of the Sabbath? We're gonna find that answer back in our main text of Scripture, in Luke chapter six.

You can turn back there. What is the purpose of the

Sabbath? After the Pharisees in verse two say, why are you doing what is not lawful to do in the

Sabbath? Jesus answered them, verse three, have you not read what David did when he was hungry? He and those who were with him.

How he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat and also give to those with him.

What a curious thing. Jesus, to refute the Pharisees and their misuse, misunderstanding of the

Sabbath, he points to a time in Scripture where David, on the

Sabbath, enters into the house of God, takes the bread of the presence, and he says that he ate it and gave it to those who were with him, which was in seeming contradiction to God's expressive law given to them by Moses.

He says, in verse five, he said to them, the

Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Now, this is a curious statement.

How do these two things mix together? The story in which Jesus rebukes the Pharisees by looking at David's example in which he did something that was seemingly unlawful, and what is the accusation against the disciples of Jesus?

That they're doing something that is unlawful to do on the Sabbath. So what

Jesus here is demonstrating is the intent and purpose of the

Sabbath. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees with an example from King David demonstrating that the letter of the law, which you write this in the notes if you're following along, does not supersede the spirit of the law.

Now, what do we mean by that? I'm gonna read to you what the Apostle Paul writes in 2

Corinthians chapter three. You're welcome to join me there as well, but in 2

Corinthians chapter three, in verse five and six, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything that's coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God who made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant.

Not of the letter, the letter being a reference to the Old Testament law, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

This is where we find often commentaries and theologians talking about the letter versus the spirit of the law.

Sometimes that is a misunderstood concept, often is a misunderstood concept. But what

Paul is pointing to here is that the letter, that being the expressive letter written law of God that the scripture obviously teaches no one can perfectly hold or fulfill except for Christ.

Christ is the only one who has perfectly obeyed the letter of God's law, the truth of God's law, that which was written by Moses.

Christ obeyed and fulfilled every drop of ink, every iota was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

He perfectly obeyed the express law of God. But the letter kills because it is in the letter, it is in the law that we find ourselves as sinners when we find ourselves not being able to keep

God's law. But he talks about the spirit, and the spirit gives life. This is a ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The indwelling of the spirit coming into the life of the believer. For the letter kills, he says, Paul says, but the spirit gives life.

There's a letter that kills, but there's a spirit that gives life. And that spirit is the

Holy Spirit who dwells in the believer, gives us the power to obey

God's law, to do what is required. And it grants us the supernatural power of life.

The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. How then does this mesh with what is seen here in Luke chapter six?

Well, easy and very simply. That the letter of the law does not supersede the intent, the spirit of the law.

God's law is meant to promote something. The intention of God's law is always to produce life.

It's to produce life. Which is why when David goes and he's in battle and he's hungry, he takes the bread, he gives it to his soldiers.

Why? Because it promoted life. It was sustenance. It was necessary.

God's law is not against life. It promotes life. Therefore, at times, life must supersede the letter, the intent.

For instance, what we read earlier in the law of God in Exodus when

Pastor Colony was reading. These are laws that are dealing with justice and life.

A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye, a life for a life. If life is taken, retribution must be paid.

It's life that is being promoted in the Old Testament law. How do we know this?

Well, let's continue to read. And just to give a quick commentary on what Jesus says here in Luke chapter six, verse five.

Jesus says that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. If you've known me long enough, you know that there's a pet peeve of mine here in this text.

Not in the text itself, but in this particular translation of the text from the ESV. If you're reading from the

ESV, you'll see that it says, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Well, there's nothing wrong with that translation, except for lowercasing the term

Lord here. Kurios being the Greek. The Son of Man is Lord of the

Sabbath. The ESV, to my knowledge, is the only major English translation that does not capitalize the

L. Now, it's likely because maybe the translators did not see this as a proper title, but I would argue this is certainly a proper title.

Oftentimes, when translators would not translate the L as capital, or the capital L, is because it's denoting kurios more as a title of respect or dignity.

So, for instance, a sir or a lord. Those titles and other things are used often in English today, except maybe in Great Britain.

But, for instance, in Spanish, we have the word lord is senor, and you would greet someone who is older as senor, and then you'd also talk about el senor

Jesucristo, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that would be capitalized. But, in this instance, the translators of the

ESV felt like they did not have to capitalize Lord, which I think is a bit silly, because this is talking about Christ as Lord Yahweh of the

Sabbath. Now, in your English translations of the Bible, oftentimes you'll see the word Lord capitalized in the

Old Testament, signifying, pointing to that name, which is Yahweh, Yud -Heh -Vav -Heh in the

Hebrew. And when Jesus is claiming to be Lord of the Sabbath, he's not claiming to just have mere seniority over the

Sabbath. He is claiming a creation title. He's saying he is the

Yahweh, he is the Jehovah, he is the Lord who created the

Sabbath. Therefore, he has authority to rightly explain and exegete the

Sabbath for the people of God. Jesus is not just one who merely has some insight or authority over the

Sabbath. He is the very creator of the Sabbath. He is the one who created in six days, who rested on the

Sabbath. Therefore, this Jesus has a lot more than just a little bit of insight. He is the

Lord Yahweh of the Sabbath. Therefore, just as a side note, if you have a pen, and if you desire, you can change that lowercase

L to a capital L in your ESV translations, or we can explore other options for other translations that deal more respectfully with the divine title in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ. But as we go on in verse six here of chapter six, on another

Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. Again, we find the narrative focusing on the day, the

Sabbath. He entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered, and the scribes and the

Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath so that they might find a reason to accuse him.

These Pharisees just seem like pretty miserable folks, don't they? Constantly just looking for a fault, constantly nitpicking, constantly looking for faults in the

Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples and his ministry. Beware that you not become a little

Pharisee. Always watching, always looking for deficiencies, whether in the ministry, whether in the preachers, whether in the church, whether in the brethren.

Always nitpicking, looking at little deficiencies to pick out, things that you don't particularly like.

Beware of that Pharisaical spirit that is always critical and is always looking to find fault in the letter, but is not gracious towards fulfilling the spirit and the intent of what

God has given us in his word. Beware of that truly, brothers and sisters, not to be overly critical of one another, but to love one another, to serve one another, not to have an overly critical spirit.

That is not to say that we ought not to be discerning. Clearly, the scripture calls us to be a discerning people. But what the

Pharisees are partaking in are not just being, it's not just that of mere discernment and looking to see whether the things that Jesus is doing is correct or incorrect, but rather, they are looking for fault in the perfect one, in the

Lamb of God who is without sin, who is blameless in every way. So we too must beware of that spirit which is so easily and readily within us to be overly critical of God's people and of what

God is doing in our midst. So too, these Pharisees were looking for fault in the life and the teaching of Jesus, and they saw this man who had a withered hand, and it was a

Sabbath, the scene is set, and on the Sabbath, they were waiting to see if Jesus was gonna be audacious enough to heal this man, which would be in violation of their interpretation of the

Sabbath. Just as men taking little grains and rubbing them together in their hands and eating them, as if that too constituted as enough work, yes, to be in violation of the

Sabbath. Not in this account, but in Mark's account and in Matthew's account of this same story, and it's not the

Gospels. Jesus makes a stunning admission, a stunning statement. He says that the

Sabbath was made for man, and not the other way around.

Why don't you write this in the notes? Jesus says that he is Lord, and definitely put that capitalized in there, of the

Sabbath, and that the Sabbath was made for man and not the other way around. But here in verses six onward, we see the revelation of the intent and purpose of the

Sabbath. Again, the Pharisees are trying to see, is Jesus gonna mess up here? Is he gonna heal this man on the

Sabbath? Will he dare do such a thing? In verse eight we see, but he knew their thoughts, that's the

Lord Jesus, the God man. Knew their thoughts. And what happens next?

He knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, come and stand here. He invites the man over, the crippled man, and he says the following.

He rose and stood there, and Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the

Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?

There, Jesus gets to the heart of the matter. What is the Sabbath about?

What is the law about? Is it for the promotion of life or death?

And clearly, Jesus is exegeting properly the scriptures and the intent of the

Sabbath, the intent of God's law as a whole, when he says to them these words again.

Again, is it to do good or to do harm?

To save life or to destroy life? Verse 10 says, after looking around at them all, he said to him, stretch out your hand.

He did so, and his hand was restored. Life, life came into the picture.

Life is what the Sabbath is about. Life is what the law of God is about.

It is the promotion, it is the extension, it is the blessing of life. According to Jesus, then, the purpose of the

Sabbath is to do good. I want you to write this in a note so you're following along. According to Jesus, the purpose of the

Sabbath is to do good and to promote life, which he himself demonstrates by doing the work of healing.

He heals this man on the Sabbath, demonstrating the true intent of the Sabbath. It is for God's people to find their rest, their healing, their good.

When God made all things in six days, on each creative day, he says, and it was good.

It was good. Ever since the Garden of Eden and the rebellion that mankind partook in in that garden, things have not been so good.

Things are going from bad to worse. And in the Sabbath, we see the restoration of that which is good, namely rest, rest for the people of God.

And brethren, there is a Sabbath of the new creation. There's a Sabbath for the people of God today.

There's a Sabbath rest for you and for me. It is fulfilled primarily in two ways.

One of the ways is the way in which we're fulfilling it today, now, here, in this space, in this time, as we're gathered together in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ on the Lord's day, which, according to many of our understandings, is the new

Christian Sabbath. You might be asking yourself, pastor, how did that happen?

Where we observe the ancient people of God, Israel observed the Sabbath on the seventh day, and now we as Christians observe it on the first day of the week?

What happened? What changed? Can I tell you what changed? Everything.

Everything changed. On that great day, when Jesus Christ came forward out of that tomb, out of the grave, he rose again, conquering death, ushering in a new creation, a new and everlasting people.

God has given us a new covenant, beloved. Everything is new. Everything has changed.

No longer are we bound by the seventh day, but now we celebrate the Sabbath and we enjoy true rest in Jesus, and we do so on the

Lord's day. Early on in Christian history, as we see in the book of Acts, the Christians began to meet on the first day.

Christian worship primarily began to take place on the first day of the week, which is

Sunday, which is what the scripture refers to later on in the book of Revelation as the Lord's day.

Now there are those who are Sabbatarian, who are Sabbatarian in the Saturday sense and in the

Sunday sense. So for instance, Seventh -day Adventists, maybe you've seen them, maybe you've heard of them, maybe you have friends who are Seventh -day

Adventists, they hold strongly to the view that no, the Sabbath hasn't changed from Saturday to Sunday, that that is an error.

In fact, they would go so far as to say that this error is indeed the mark of the beast, the change, the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday.

Bold, bold claim. And you'd have to take up the argument against the early witness of the church in the book of Acts when they worshiped on the first day of the week.

So too, we worship on the first day of the week, signifying and symbolizing the new creation.

This is a forever arrangement that God made of his people, Israel, as we've seen in the Old Testament.

In Acts, and in fact, in Isaiah chapter 66, we see that in the new creation state, we will continue to worship on the

Sabbath. We'll continue to worship together as God's people in the new creation.

The Sabbath day is indeed holy, and what makes it all the more holy is that it is fulfilled precisely and perfectly in Jesus Christ.

So not only do we have a day set apart in our week where we leave the mundane things of the world behind, where we focus and dedicate ourselves in the worship of the one true and triumphant God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but we also have

Sabbath perpetually in Jesus Christ.

In verse 11 of Luke chapter six, after seeing the miraculous hand of Jesus restore the lame hand of the man who was there, it says in verse 11, they were filled with fury in disgust of one another, what they might do to Jesus.

Instead of celebrating life, celebrating good, the Pharisees aside, to use this as ammunition against Christ, because their hearts, their souls have not found rest in the one who offers true and lasting rest, and that's the

Lord Jesus Christ. That's Jesus. There is a rest, beloved, for the people of God.

I want you to follow along in the notes here with me. The seventh day Sabbath was a sign of God's grace in the old covenant.

You see, when God commands his people to rest, this is a grace.

We are called to labor six days, just as the Lord God labored for six days.

And the period of rest, when God stepped into that day of holy rest on that seventh day, it wasn't because God was tired.

It wasn't because God was exhausted or couldn't be exhausted by creation.

But rather, the rest was there for his enjoyment, for his pleasure, for his able to sit back and to observe all that he made.

And we are called also in like manner to labor, to work hard with our hands, to be people of honest work.

And as we work, whether it's five -day week or a six -day week, we are called to have a particular day of rest where we sit back and we observe the works of our hands, but even more greatly, on the

Christian Sabbath, we are called to remember and recognize the hand, sovereignty, and creative works of God.

So when we gather on the Lord's day, we're not just to rest from our own works, but rather, we are entering into his rest, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the one who created all things.

We are entering into his holy rest. This is because the

Sabbath rest of God for the new creation is when we receive

God's rest from our works, when we receive our works, when we receive

God's rest from our works. That's what's alluded to in Hebrews chapter four, verse nine and 10, we don't have time to read that text in its entirety.

But again, the Sabbath was the sign of God's grace in the Old Covenant. But the

Sabbath rest for the new creation is when we receive God's rest from our works.

Which works, beloved, can I tell you now, there is no amount of works that you can do to be rewarded with everlasting life.

There is no amount of works of goodness, no amount of obedience to law that you can acquire in order to satisfy

God's perfect justice and wrath towards sinners. There's only one rest in which you can enter into, which will save you, not just for a period of time, not just a respite for a little while, but a respite unto eternal life, and that's faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the only way to God, the only approved way by which we can have our sins forgiven, be made right with God, and enter into this rest, which leads to eternal life.

And even more boldly, I will venture to say this, that in the new creation, Jesus is our perfect Sabbath.

Pastor, what do you mean by that? Is that a denial of Sabbatarianism as we understand it?

No, not at all. In fact, it is a fulfillment of it. Because what good is it to observe

Sunday as the Sabbath if you have not yet come to the Lord of the

Sabbath? Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, by whom you must come to, through whom you must approach, in order to receive this perfect rest that he offers, not just on this day, on this particular day of the week, but every day of the week in which he is

Lord, over, and sovereign. Jesus is indeed our perfect Sabbath.

And I want to ask you to turn to just two more verses of scriptures, that first being

Colossians chapter two. In Colossians chapter two, notice what

Paul writes concerning the grandeur and greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ in relation to some of the things that were shadows in the

Old Testament. And he says, in verse 16 and 17, let no one pass judgment on you in question of food and drink, or with regard to a festival, a new moon, or a

Sabbath. Remember what they were doing in the old, in the times of Jesus's ministry, the Pharisees.

What were they looking to in order to criticize Christ and his disciples? Food, the interpretation of the

Sabbath. They saw that they were eating on the Sabbath, that they were cooking with their hands by rubbing these grains together.

And Paul says, let no one pass judgment on you in question of food and drink, or with regard to a festival, that is a yearly event, a new moon, which is a monthly occurrence, or a

Sabbath, which is a weekly observance. These, all these things, which are

Old Testament ordinances and practices, are a shadow of the things to come.

But the ESV translates this as the substance belongs to Christ, or in other translations,

I believe that NIV says the reality is in Jesus. The truth, the substance, the reality of the

Sabbath, of the festivals, of all the ordinances of the Old Testament is realized fully in Jesus Christ.

He is indeed the one and true Sabbath. He's the substance and the reality of the promises.

He invites all of you today to partake into his Sabbath rest.

How does the Lord Jesus do such a thing? How does he invite us, even this morning, to enter into this rest?

Well, the answer is found in Matthew chapter 11, it's our last verse. And this is part of the synoptic gospels in Matthew chapter 11.

This actually precedes what we just read in Luke's account, in Luke chapter six. In Luke's account, this is not included, but he goes on elsewhere to say in Matthew chapter 12 is where Jesus has that experience that we just read in Luke chapter six.

So before this experience, notice what he says. Starting in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28.

Hear ye and receive this call of Christ. He says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you, what?

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. And then in the next proceeding verses in chapter 12 is when we have that same exact scenario that we read in Luke chapter six, that Jesus goes on to explain the true intent of the

Sabbath, which is found in verse seven of chapter 12, where he says, if you had known what this means,

I desired mercy, not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the guiltless, for the

Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Brothers and sisters, on this

Sabbath, come to the Sabbath, Jesus Christ. Come to him, all who are weary, all who are heavy laden, all who have a heavy yoke and burden, come to him today, for his yoke is easy, his burden is light.

Yes, indeed, it is light, brothers and sisters. He invites all, if you haven't written this in your notes, he invites all who labor to come and receive his rest.

May you come to him today, may you know him and receive true and lasting rest in Jesus.

Let us pray. Indeed, precious

Lord Jesus, magnificent Lord, Lord, even of the Sabbath, we do come to you this morning and afternoon, receiving the rest that you and you alone can give and offer, a rest for our souls.

We no longer have to walk in the burden of earning approval or salvation, but Lord, we have a salvation that can never be taken, that can never be shaken, because it does not depend upon us, but upon your perfect work of obedience.

It depends upon us only merely receiving this gracious gift by faith through grace.

And Lord, we stand in this rest, the rest that you've given us, that only so that we may observe this particular day, this

Lord's day, but Father, that we may observe rest perpetually in Jesus Christ.

Lord, we thank you that you have given us such rest that we no longer have to run for your approval, your approval has been given to us in the beloved, in Jesus.

Lord, help us to see the true meaning of your law, the true meaning of your word, which is to desire mercy, not sacrifice, to desire and pursue good, not evil, to do that which is right and not harm, and to promote and bring forth life and not death.

Lord, help us to observe this new covenant Sabbath, not just on this particular day again,

Lord, but every single day, that as we carry in our hearts the Lord Jesus Christ, that we also carry that perfect rest that he offers.

So that, Lord, when we encounter the difficulties of this life, we do not have to be burdened, but instead,

Lord, rest assured in the rest that you give. We observe and acknowledge this truth in you, in Jesus Christ, even now and forevermore, until that perfect day, when we will have perfect rest for all eternity, in Jesus' name we do pray, amen.