Lord of the Sabbath | Under Pressure

First question, see if we can get some conversation

going this morning. When you think of the word

rest, right, what comes to mind? Maybe how you

rest or when you think of the idea of rest, what

tends to come to mind? A couple people. If you're

a guest this morning, we do have some interaction.

I do like that when we can talk amongst ourselves.

It doesn't need to just be me talking at you,

but talking with you and having that conversation.

It would be interesting to see how this is answered.

When you think of rest, what do you think of?

Just breathing, apparently. Okay, for Nikki,

right? That was just an exhale. I'm not going

to do that on the mic because I think that's

weird, but just breathing something out. Sure.

Others? Calm. Okay. An idea of calmness. Okay.

Yeah. I don't fully understand that one. It's

very hard for me to calm down on stuff. I know

you're shocked. Others? Sleep. Yeah. Hopefully,

when you're asleep, you're at rest, and I think

80 % of us understand that. I just made that

up, but I think it's true. Others? I heard something

over here. A nap, so very, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, how many good nappers do we have? Okay,

how many bad nappers do we have? Absolutely,

right? There are people that will say, man, I

just had the greatest power nap. And I look at

them and go, I don't understand what you just

said. Like, oh, I just needed 20 minutes. The

volume of voices in my head don't go down a hair

in 20 minutes, let alone try to find a 20 -minute

nap. Any power nappers? Great. Do not covet thy

neighbor's power nap. That's unbelievable. Anyone

else? When you think of resting, where's a good

place to rest? Keep it appropriate. What? The

beach. Absolutely. Yeah, it's coming from our

Florida travelers. Yes. Yeah. Alaska. Thank you,

Randy. Yep, there's an Alaskaflex. The Spielmans

were in Alaska. But that, absolutely. I know

people that have gone. It is, man, it's beauty.

When you're in God's creation, resting seems

to be so much easier, whether a beach or Alaska.

Those are opposites. But anywhere else? A comfortable

spot. Yeah, absolutely. A couch, a comfortable

spot, right? So let me ask a question. Oh, go

ahead. Talking to Al? Oh, no? Okay. Al's lazy

boy chair. This is getting weird, Andrea. Okay,

we're just going to keep going, right? Something

about a lazy boy chair, great. So how many of

us rest well? How many people can offer a confession

today amongst friends? How many of us rest well?

Seven of you. Out of a room of 270, seven of

you rest well. I think this message is going

to hit. The rest seven, you can rest well and

fall asleep. Because you rest well, you don't

need this, right? And some of you might do that

already. But understand that we don't talk about

Sabbath a lot. We just don't. Or if we do talk

about Sabbath, we use it as some kind of defense

mechanism as to why we aren't going to go do

that. I will have that in marriage or premarital

counseling all the time. People use it as some

kind of trump card. Like, hey, do you want to

go hang out with my parents today? No, I need

to Sabbath. Hey, don't you want to go see your

grandson's t -ball game? No, I need to Sabbath.

That's not how you're supposed to use it. And

the Lord is going to bring that about from Luke

Luke 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. We'll be in Luke 6. But before we

get there, the claim is that he's the Lord of

the Sabbath. That is what Jesus is claiming this

morning. It was Son of Man brought pressure.

Lord of the Sabbath brings almost even more pressure

than Son of Man from last week. But I want to

talk first, before we jump into God's Word, what

does it feel like when a good gift... becomes

heavy. That this gift of rest is a gift we all

have been given by our Heavenly Father, yet sometimes

good gifts can become heavy. There are few things

more tragic in life than when a gift becomes

a burden. Something meant to bring life slowly

in some weird way that we tend to kind of navigate

to, that that gift, the thing that brought life,

slowly becomes something that weighs us down.

A couple examples. Maybe a job that once felt

like a calling, super excited, like get up every

day, this is great, all of a sudden becomes,

or slowly over time, becomes an exhausting pressure.

Maybe a hobby, once loved. then becomes an obligation.

Maybe, even if we're honest, that faith itself,

instead of this invigorating thing that we walk

into every day, tends just to become a thing

we have to check off. Did my Bible time, Pastor

Jidge said show up to pray, so we're going to

pray, but we'll go Tuesday because it doesn't

fit in my Sunday schedule, all the things. That

can easily happen. And that's exactly what happened

with the idea of Sabbath in Jesus' day. That

in Jesus' day, the idea of Sabbath went from

being a gift to being a political, a religious,

a moral obligation. Because the thing is, God

created the Sabbath, right? I was sitting down

with a firefighter this week who has been going

through a lot of struggles. And he was talking

about how he doesn't rest well. And so it's just

the sermon was already done. I was like, oh,

you're going to get the sermon before I even

give it. And sitting down with him, he's just

like, I just don't understand why I need to rest.

But then my mind, all the things. And I said,

brother, God himself rested. So I think we should

too. He just kind of looked at me. He's not,

I mean, faith isn't a huge conversation in his

life right now. Hopefully it will be. He just

looked at me, and I think that connection of,

wow, this God of the universe, or the God that

I speak about in my chaplaincy, rested. So I

want to offer that to you this morning, is if

that's a week wrecker for you, great. If that's

a month wrecker for you, great. If that's a rest

wrecker for you, awesome, you're getting it.

God himself took time to rest. He said, I'm going

to create these days, but then I am going to

rest. Rest was a gift. Sabbath was a gift. A

day of rest. A day of worship. A day to remember

that the world is held together, not by your

own efforts, mine own efforts, the elders, the

deacons, but by God's grace. Over time, the religious

rule of the day, right? We saw how that became

perverted and corrupted. They started layering

rule upon rule upon rule around this idea of

rest. By the first century, there were dozens

of regulations defining what's counted as work

and what counted as rest. Rest became this thing

you needed a recipe for. The gift was no longer

a gift. How far someone could walk was the difference

between rest or work. How much grain someone

could gather, rest or work. The actions counted

as labor, rest or work. What was meant to be

a day of rest became a day of spiritual pressure

and spiritual compromise. And into that pressure

-filled system, Jesus walks in, and I love how

he does it. And when he begins redefining the

Sabbath, he is doing something far bigger than

just changing a rule. He is revealing something

about himself. He is revealing that the Lord

of the Sabbath had arrived. Another reason, and

hopefully we're picking those up, as we distinguish

each candle, we can see and hear another reason

why the religious system wants to ultimately

snuff the light of the world out. So let's jump

in. Luke chapter 6. We're going to be beginning

Luke 6 · chapter mention

of Luke 6. We're going to be in the first 10

verses. Again, we'll show it on the screen, but

if you have it in your own Bibles or on your

app, we use the ESV, but feel free to follow

along with another translation, though it will

read different. The first 10 verses of Luke 6.

On a Sabbath, while he was going through the

grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some

of the heads of grain, rubbing them in their

hands. But some of the Pharisees says, 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 and took

and ate the bread of the presence, which is not

lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also

gave it to those with him? And he said to them,

the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. On another

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 may find a reason to accuse him. But

he knew their thoughts. Again, two weeks in a

row, knows their thoughts. And he said to the

man with the withered hand, Come and stand here.

And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to

them, So, we see a couple different... aspects

of jesus doing or his disciples doing something

on the sabbath and the teaching that goes along

with it so the pressure point one that jesus

walks into our lives and then the lives of the

text religion can turn god's gifts into burdens

okay that's pressure point one this morning jesus

and his disciples are walking through a grain

field Nothing bad about that, right? That's just

kind of ho -hum. Walking through a grain field,

the disciples pick the heads of grain, rub them

in their hands, and eat it. I don't fully get

it. I didn't really do a lot of research on it.

We're just going to take it as it says. They

rub the grain. They ate it. And immediately,

Pharisees confront them. Immediately, gotcha,

right? What are you doing, or why are you doing

what is not lawful on the Sabbath? The irony,

if we really dig deep, is striking as what is

going on here. The Old Testament actually allowed

travelers to pick grain by hand. Deuteronomy

23, which the Pharisees should know that's part

of the law. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,

Deuteronomy, right? Part of the law. They would

have known that. That was made a provision. Deuteronomy

23. The issue here was not God's law. The Pharisees

didn't really have a lawful leg to stand on in

a pure way of understanding the law. The issue

was the human additions to the law. And this

is what Jesus is going to call out. You see,

the Pharisees had built layers of their own interpretation

around the Sabbath so that even simple actions

like rubbing grain together would be classified

as work. What began as a way to honor God eventually

became a system of pressure that someone needed

to endure in order to be a good believer, a good

Jew in that time. Instead of the rest that people

should have, they... felt watched. Instead of

joy, they felt judged. Instead of freedom, they

felt burdened. This is the system of oppression

that the Pharisees had built around the religious

idea of following Yahweh. But church, the temptation

hasn't disappeared today. How many of you have

walked through a grain field this week and rubbed

wheat in your hands and ate it? It's okay. You

can offer that. Exactly. Yet, Faith can slowly

become performance in today's aspect, in today's

culture, right? The person that we are online,

following all the rules, doing all the things,

yet the person we're doing in private, different

people. The performative aspect of faith hasn't

changed. The pressure is still there. It just

looks very different. We begin to measure spirituality

by activity. Or, because I'm on a board, I am

this. Or because I am on council, I am this,

said no one who ever has really been on a council,

right? That that burden comes. It's not very

light at times. We like to compare ourselves

to others. And if we're being honest, compare

is a nice word, right? Well, what's another word

when we compare ourselves to others? What's another

word we actually like to use but we don't tell

anybody? Judge. Right, judge. Thank you, Will.

Yeah, there you go. It was good. He was resting.

So, yes, he was. We like to compare, judge, other

people. That's part of our religiosity, if we're

being honest. We wonder if we are doing enough,

praying enough, serving enough. What does enough

mean? Because we look at other people. We look

at other leaders. I'm not as good as them. I

don't do it enough here. I don't blah, blah,

blah. All the things. Pressure, pressure, pressure.

And slowly, the gift of God can begin to feel

like pressure. But Jesus steps on the scene.

And what I love what he does, and what he will

continue to do in this sermon series, he restores

the gift that humans have tainted. He destroys

the gift that humans actually have ripped apart.

And he enters in, pressure point two, he reveals

his authority over the Sabbath. And this is an

aspect of the Sabbath we don't actually understand

at times, yet we feel this pressure a lot. Because

if we're being honest, and if we don't Sabbath,

or if someone reminds us to Sabbath, it can almost

be like this big brother above us of God going,

When's the last time you Sabbathed, Jim? I'm

keeping a ledger. You haven't done any kind of

Sabbath this week. You haven't done anything.

And it may come out like the voice of my wife

or something else, you know, in the aspect of

Sabbath and rest. Jesus is revealing a restoration

to what was being created. Jesus answers the

Pharisees with the story of 1 Samuel 21. David

and his companions were hungry, and they ate

the consecrated bread normally reserved for the

priests, the Levites, the Levitical code. But

the point of the story is clear. Human need matters

more than ritual regulation. Let me say that

again. Human need matters more than religion.

The ritual understanding of how we walk out Christianity.

Then Jesus makes the pressure statement that

would have shocked everyone listening. It doesn't

shock us today, really, in a post -resurrected

society, though it should still convict. The

Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Not a casual

comment. We're building it off of last week that

the Son of Man is here to forgive sins. Boom.

Lines being drawn. Now he doubles down. The Son

of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. This is a claim

of royalty. This is more than just the Messiah.

This is now God speak. This is Yahweh speak.

The Sabbath was instituted by God himself when?

Seventh day of creation. So Jesus is saying,

he is Lord of the Sabbath. What is he actually

claiming? I was there when Yahweh created it.

I am there claiming authority over something

that belongs to God alone. And what we're going

to see is because he's going to say, I... and

the Father are one. The Heidelberg Catechism

helps us understand this moment. Again, the Catechism

is one of our confessions that we follow as a

Reformed Church. It's one of the three that helps

us understand and interpret God's Word. And Lord's

Day 12 tells us that Christ is our chief prophet,

our only high priest, and our eternal king. And

what Luke 6 is pointing us to is his kingship.

His kingship is on display. And again, it's not

just going to be words. It's going to be actions

because it's Jesus and that's what he does. Jesus

is not simply interpreting the Sabbath. He is

declaring authority over it. The one who created

the Sabbath is the one that gets to dictate Sabbath.

Define Sabbath. Invite you into Sabbath. And

if we're being honest, is our Sabbath. You can't

Sabbath in anything else. but God himself. Yeah,

you might be on a nice beach. You might be in

Alaska. You might be at a kid's t -ball game.

I don't know anyone that's Sabbath -stirring

that. But understanding that what is Sabbath?

Sabbath is God's gift to you to be with him.

That is what true Sabbath is. That's why this

is not just some, oh, I guess I'm just Lord of

the Sabbath. It is Sabbath itself. He's declaring

authority over it because what he's saying is

the king has arrived. I am here to make things

new, including how you rest, what you rest in,

and who you rest with. And this is going to bind

anyone that lives a legalistic heart. And that's

the third pressure point. Legalism hardens the

heart. Luke then reorders another Sabbath encounter.

Jesus enters the synagogue. We know that that's

something he did. Right? We learned that last

week. A man with a withered hand is present.

The scribes and the Pharisees are watching closely.

Everywhere that Jesus is, the Pharisees now are

going to be. Because they're watching. They're

waiting. For what? To accuse him. They want stuff

to take him out with. They want that evidence.

They want those lies. They want to twist that

gotcha journalism. But they're not watching with

compassion. They're watching for a mistake. Oh,

he's going to slip up. We know he's going to

slip up. And we know the story. So because he

doesn't slip up, what do they do? They have to

create this whole ruse. They have to have someone

betray him, but that's for later. They want to

see whether Jesus will heal on the Sabbath so

they can accuse him. And notice how pressure

reveals their hearts. This dude has a withered

hand. This dude is suffering. Not just politically,

not just in the community, but physically. He

has a wizard hand. Jesus sees the suffering man

and thinks about restoration. So he asks them

a question. He doesn't ask the guy. The guy is

coming for one thing. To see if his hand will

be restored. If physical healing is going to

take place. So you got Jesus, you got this guy

in front of him, but then he looks over at the

Pharisees and asks them the question, because

he perceives their thoughts, is it lawful on

the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save

life or to destroy it? I think that question

is fascinating, because he's putting the Pharisees

on notice. He's looking at all of them and saying,

how far are you going to take this junk that

you have created out of my word? Are you going

to lean and rest in me over someone potentially

dying? Getting destroyed? But they remain silent.

Sometimes silence is an answer. Sometimes a non

-vote is a vote. Legalism always produces...

Hardness. What am I trying to say? Legalism always

produces hardness, harshness, and hurt. I don't

know anyone that walks out a legalistic Christianity

and goes, this feels great. Come, be a part of

my legalism. No. That's a disgusting way. I'm

all about following the rules. But I also know

that I can't all the time. That I'm going to

fall. That I'm going to need forgiveness. I'm

going to need grace. I'm going to need mercy.

Thank God it's new every morning. But legalism

says, come up to me. Up here in this fake understanding

that I do everything perfectly. And that's how

I get my relationship with God. But Jesus enters.

comes down and says, no, it is not about hardness.

It is not about harshness. It's not about hurt.

When religion becomes about rules instead of

the relationship with God, compassion does what?

Disappears. We have to have compassion because

we have been shown compassion. The Sabbath was

meant to cultivate mercy instead of being a tool

of judgment. Now, Pause. Time out. There are

some hard conversations here. Right? Look at

the state of our world with sports. Youth sports.

Right? All of those things. Some of you, you're

binding right now because you're like, is he

going to call out doing sports on the weekend?

I'm not going to call it out, but I'm going to

acknowledge that those exist. And that church

virtual seems to be this little bit trump card,

like, yeah, I know we were gone, but we watched

online on a Tuesday, and that's all well and

good, and that's something we can offer that,

but I think we have to get to the heart of the

understanding of what is your heart around it?

What is my heart around this? Are we using this

as a tool of judgment, or are we asking people

to rest in the mercies of God to understand those

areas of life? That we don't measure up. That

we need Jesus. That we need to walk out. That

we need to show love because we've been loved.

Show mercy because we've been shown mercy. Because

I don't care who you are. I don't care your faith

relationship. Whether this is your first day

in church or your thousandth day in church. I

don't care what kind of church you grew up in.

I don't care about your understanding or relationship

with God's word or prayer or Jesus himself. We

all need restoration. Why? Because we're all

broken. If we have this piece of glass that represents

our life, it has all been smashed on the ground.

And someone needs to put it together. And it's

not going to be you. It's not going to be your

spouse. It's not going to be the sports. It's

not going to be all those other things. It's

going to be the Savior. That brings everything

together. Because Jesus restores what sin has

broken. Jesus tells the man, stretch out your

hand. And immediately his hand is restored. I

would have loved it if Luke's writer would have

spent more time on this. This is where I just

go, man, Jesus, I think you missed it. And then

I get convicted like, well, that was a dumb thing

to say. No, he did it, and that's fine. Who am

I to judge God in healing? I would have loved

to know more of that interaction. I would have

loved to know more about that healing. But it's

a simple miracle. But it's a miracle. Why do

I want more? Just receive it, Jim. But it's pretty

hard. Though simple, it's powerful because the

Sabbath was always meant to celebrate God's work

of what? Creation. Restoration. Fulfillment.

That's what we rest in. Whether you take it literal

and Sunday is your day of rest, what you should

be doing is looking back on a week that was,

thanking God that you've made it, that he was

there, and you find rest in him. The Sabbath

was always meant to celebrate God's work of restoration.

God rested after creation, not because he was

tired, because his work was complete. That when

we complete something, we should rest in what

God has done. And the Sabbath reminded Israel

that God would be the one to restore everything,

that one day sin, though it broke everything,

would be destroyed, and restoration would be

everything. Jesus now stands on that promise

before them. He's doing way more than a healing,

way more than a teaching. Jesus is not violating

the Sabbath as they want to put on him. What

he's actually doing is fulfilling. The Sabbath.

And I don't know about you, but Jesus can. Why?

Because he is our Sabbath. That's what happens

when rest walks into the room of your life. At

this moment in the story, something deeper is

becoming clearer, hopefully. The Sabbath was

never meant to be merely about a rule or even

just about a day. It was meant to point to a

greater reality of who Jesus is. It is meant

to point to salvation and restoration that only

God can bring. That's why you can do everything

you can to rest well. I'm going through a season

of life where I cannot find a comfortable pillow

to save my life. Right? I've gone through the

Wonder Pillow. I've gone through America's Pillow.

I've gone through whatever's. I've done shapes

that don't look comfortable. And guess what?

They're not. I can't find rest to save my life.

I guarantee you that my bride would sometimes

just go and knock me off and go find it somewhere

else. A pillow and rest. Like the couch. I am

striving for that. And in ways, the church can

make us feel the same way. That the church makes

us feel like we're not doing enough, we're not

giving enough, we're not showing up enough, we're

not signing up for the nursery enough, we're

not doing all of these things to cultivate our

relationship with God. That is what they struggled

with then, and we do struggle with it now. And

yes, do we need all those things in the church?

We do, but if our priority is off, if we don't

know who we find our definition is, none of it

matters. Jesus is revealing in this moment, when

he heals the man's withering hand, he is showing

that true purpose of the Sabbath is ultimately

restoration. That is the true purpose of the

church. It's not all the mission trips, though

those are great. It's not all the... First Saturday

serves, which we are rocking and doing a great

job. It's not about the outreach events. It's

not about the council. It's not the potential

building. It's restoration. Can people come here

and find a restorative relationship with God?

That is what it's about. Because sin is going

to continually try to break it. That's where

Lord's Day 11 asks a question. Why is the Son

of God called Jesus, meaning Savior? And the

answer is simply beautiful. Because he saves

us from our sins. It is a sinful way of life

to try to climb some kind of religious ladder

to God. It's not sinful to do those things. To

Sabbath, right? To tithe. Walking out your faith

that way. That is all great. But when the mindset

and the heartbeat is to... Connect with God that

way and not just rest in who he is. That's when

we turn it to sin. In other words, Jesus does

not merely adjust the Sabbath rules. He brings

the salvation of the Sabbath that it was always

pointing to. The rest that humanity truly needs

is not simply physical rest. It is the rest found

in forgiveness. Friend, stop sinning. And sit

in forgiveness. And I look at the mirror first.

I could look at all of you first, but that would

be hypocrisy. I'm going to turn and look at my

own mirror. Stop doing those things. Stop trying

to reach the spiritual top. Sit in who God is.

He is the reconciler. And he wants to be reconciled

to you in rest. It's the rest knowing that our

sins no longer separate us from a creator. And

that the only one that can give us rest is Jesus.

The same Jesus who told the man to stretch out

his hand will one day be the one to stretch out

his own hands on the cross. And through his sacrifice

the deepest rest of all is secured. That is why

the Sabbath ultimately finds fulfillment not

in a calendar day, not in 24 hours, but in a

person, the Savior, the Lord of the Sabbath,

the one who saves us from our sins. And when

Jesus walks into that room of our life, true

rest always follows him. So let's land this plane.

What is Luke telling us then, and what is Luke

telling us now? Well, then... The Pharisees believed

obedience meant stricter rules. You see, Jesus

revealed that obedience means trusting the Lord

who fulfills the law. Then they guarded the Sabbath

like a fence, but Jesus opens that door. Why?

Because now many people experience enormous pressure

from life, work, expectations, and even religion.

But Christ offers something different. Rest from

yourself. Rest from that desire to be your own

God, yet rest from the desire to be the center

of your universe. The rest of forgiveness. The

rest of belonging to Jesus. The rest of knowing

that salvation does not depend on your performance.

And guess what? It never has and it never will.

But a rest in the one who gives you rest. So

let's come into the rest of Christ together,

church. We live in a world of pressure. Pressure

to perform, pressure to succeed, pressure to

prove ourselves. But the Lord of the Sabbath

speaks a different word. He doesn't say, go and

do. Get it done. No. He says, come to me. Lay

down that burden. Stop trying to earn what Christ

has already accomplished. Trust the one who fulfills

the Sabbath. Because the Lord of the Sabbath

is also the Savior of sinners. And in him we

will always find rest for our souls. Let's pray.