Jesus and Sabbath Rest | Matthew 11:27-12:8 | Ben Akatsa | March 1, 2026

And no one knows the Son except the Father.

And no one knows the Father except the Son.

And anyone to whom the Son Jesus is revealing.

Come to me.

All who labor 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.

At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.

His disciples were hungry.

And they began to pluck heads of grain to eat.

But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

He said to them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests.

Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?

I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

You would not have condemned the guiltless.

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

This is the word of the Lord.

So good to be with you and to have the opportunity to uh share God's word with you.

I'll ask you to go ahead and bow your head so we can pray.

Um and I'm gonna ask you to uh say two prayers.

The the first one, pray for yourself and say, uh, Lord Jesus, would you speak to my heart this morning?

Just like that.

Lord Jesus, would you speak to my heart this morning?

And then the second prayer, make for me and just pray this way.

Lord Jesus, give Ben a clear mind and a rested heart as he preaches your word, just like that.

Lord Jesus, give Ben a clear mind and a rested heart as he preaches your word.

And then I'm gonna pray for us.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning.

Thank you for your love toward us in Christ.

We pray that uh you would by your grace through your spirit apply your word to our hearts where we need it.

In Jesus' name we pray.

And God's people said amen.

Um please turn my mic down just a little bit, just a bit.

That way I don't end up feeding back.

Um we are in a preaching series called uh Awaken Houston.

And during this time, we're going through a couple of passages.

Yeah, that sounds good.

Whoever turned me down, thank you.

We're going through a couple of passages that other churches in the city of Houston are also preaching through.

Today we're gonna be in Matthew 12, which uh David read for us.

The book of Matthew is about Jesus, the promised messianic king, through whom God's kingdom is going to break through.

And you kind of see the theme right there.

Jesus the messianic king.

And the part we're in is where Jesus is being proclaimed as the Messiah, but unfortunately, he's going to be opposed.

He's being presented as the Messiah that God promised, but unfortunately, the religious leaders and the Jews are going to eventually oppose him.

In Matthew 12, there are words that are repeated in Matthew 11.

And I want you to see those words up on the screen.

There's a very close connection between the two.

And it's these words.

In Matthew 11, it begins by saying, at that time Jesus declared.

And then in Matthew 12, Matthew writes, at that time Jesus went through the grain fields.

So in terms of the way the writer of the book is writing, he's putting a very close connection between what comes before and what comes after, using that phrase at that time.

And there's also a close connection between what Jesus says and what's called the Sabbath.

And you see this, for some reason my point is not working.

I don't know why.

Oh, there we go.

In Matthew 11, it says, At that time Jesus declared, and what does he say?

One of the things he says is, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you, and he uses the word rest.

And then in Matthew 12, at that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.

So there's a very close connection between the word rest that Jesus uses before and the word rest that Jesus uses in Matthew 12.

And the idea of Sabbath and rest are very closely connected.

In the book of Exodus, there is a passage.

So Sabbath means, okay, it's gone.

So in the book of Exodus 31, this is what it says six days you shall work, six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest.

That word that Exodus uses for rest is the same word that when Matthew is writing, he uses for rest when Jesus is speaking.

There's a very close connection between the Sabbath rest that the Old Testament talks about and the rest that Jesus promises to bring.

Sabbath means to seize.

That idea of Sabbath and rest is something that you and I should be acquainted with because it's an important biblical idea.

It points back to the rest that God intends for all of creation to experience under his rule.

And what we're going to see in these passages is that that Sabbath rest that the Old Testament talks about, that the person who brings it is Jesus Christ.

Our sermon today is titled Jesus and Sabbath Rest.

And I want us to see that there's a spiritual idea in this Sabbath rest, then there's a way we experience it in our relationships, and then there's going to be what an eschatological experience of that rest.

All that the word means is in the end times when Jesus returns.

So spiritually, we receive the Sabbath rest spiritually when we come under the Lordship of Christ.

So Matthew 12 writes that at that time Jesus was going through the grain fields on the Sabbath.

And then an issue comes up because verse 2, when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what it is not what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

See, the issue that the Pharisees are bringing up is this.

The thing you could not do is take a sickle, you see a picture on the screen, and go and chop the grain and say, I'm gonna carry all this grain with me.

That was not allowed.

But if you were hungry and you were walking through, you could pick it up with your hand.

So the issue was not that they were picking grain with their hands.

The issue that the Pharisees bring up is that they are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

When God gives the Sabbath command to his people, he tells them, You shall not work.

I have some passages for us on the screen.

Exodus 28 says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

On it you shall not do any work.

So they were not supposed to work on the Sabbath.

What's the reason that God gives?

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them and rested on the Sabbath, on the seventh day.

And if you go to Genesis 2, 2 to 3, it says this on the seventh day after God created, after he finished the work that he has done, he rested from all the work that he has done, and he blessed the seventh day and made it holy.

So that seventh day was a special day.

Pointing back to the fact that after God created, he stopped his work of creation, and he told his Old Testament people, on that Sabbath day, do not work.

The Sabbath day was really important.

In Exodus 31, this is what Moses writes.

Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death.

So if you don't treat the Sabbath like the special day it was supposed to be, you would be put to death.

And then he adds, it's a sign forever between me and the people of Israel.

The Sabbath was a special sign between God's Old Testament people and God.

Whenever they would keep it, it would be a reminder.

Oh, we are God's special people.

So they're not supposed to work.

It's a sign of their relationship with God.

And the Pharisees say, Why are your disciples doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?

Here's the thing: in the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the first five books, which can be considered the books of the law, God doesn't really define for his people what stopping to work means, other than saying, on that seventh day you shall stop working.

The only restriction he adds in those first five books is that you won't light a fire.

That's it.

You read the rest of the Old Testament and the other restrictions that you see are okay, you should not do commerce on the Sabbath day, and then you shouldn't carry burdens.

That's it.

So where did the Pharisees get the idea that the disciples could not take grain and eat it?

Here's the thing: the Pharisees added their rules on the Sabbath day.

Things like these that you shouldn't do on the Sabbath day.

One was throwing an object into the air and catching it with the other hand on the Sabbath day was prohibited.

Another one was this.

In case you were eating a meal, let's say at 11:59, right?

Before the Sabbath, 12 o'clock hits and it's the Sabbath.

If you're eating a meal, you gotta drop it and return your hand.

So for those people who like midnight snacks, you have to eat your midnight snack a little earlier because Sabbath hits, you gotta drop that spoon and you can't eat.

Like rules that just don't make sense.

Another rule that they came up with was if you pluck grain like the disciples were doing, rub it in your hands, and then you eat it, it's like you have harvested grain.

This is something they came up with that God did not give them.

That's why they're asking Jesus, why are your disciples doing what is not lawful?

Really, what is not lawful according to the rules we have set, not the rules God has set.

We are really good at setting rules where God has not set rules.

And here's the thing: if God has not clearly prohibited something and has left it to your own conscience to decide between you and God how to please him, what is the right thing to do?

Should I celebrate Halloween or not?

That's between you and God.

I can't place a I cannot place a restriction on you.

At what age should I allow my kids to watch certain shows?

As long as it's not explicit, like you decide.

I don't know.

That's up to you and you and God.

It's just up to how you want to please him, what's gonna be pleasing to him?

Should you vote for a Republican or a Democrat?

That's up to you.

Please don't ask me.

I'm not gonna tell you because that's between you and God.

I'm not gonna bring in rules that God has not set.

The Pharisees were really good at that.

When we start bringing in rules that God has not clearly prohibited, we start becoming more like the Pharisees and less like Jesus.

So back to the issue.

Why are they doing what's of prohibited?

What is prohibitable to do on the Sabbath?

Jesus, his argument is this.

He tells them, verse 3, have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God?

This is what happened.

David is running away from Saul, and then he comes to the tabernacle.

It wasn't a temple then, it was this tent.

He comes to this tent, he meets the high priest, and he says, My men and I are hungry, give us bread to eat.

There was bread that was kept in the presence of God that was only for the high priest, for Aaron and his sons, so for the high priest and people like him.

People like David could not eat that bread.

But then the high priest looks at David and he says, Well, if the people you're with have not had any relations with a woman, then they can eat this bread.

Now, I don't understand all those Old Testament laws about you know having relations with a woman and how that uh factors into participating in ceremonial things.

Some of those laws are really difficult.

The point is this that he tells them you can eat the bread even if the law says you cannot eat it.

And the principle that Jesus is trying to remind these Pharisees is when it comes to preserving human life, that is more important than any laws you can come up with.

And then he goes ahead and he also tells them, or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and the guiltless?

What is Jesus pointing to?

He's pointing to the fact that even on the Sabbath day when nobody was supposed to work, the priests still had to offer sacrifices.

And actually, on the Sabbath day, priests offered double sacrifices for the burnt offering.

So they were working doubly hard.

Yet God doesn't tell them you're not supposed to work on the Sabbath day.

And I think what Jesus is trying to tell them is whatever you're trying, you whatever you intend to do in service to the Lord is allowed on the Sabbath.

And then he tells them, I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

We'll come back to that.

Verse 7.

And if you had known known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.

And then here comes the bomb in verse 8.

You won't hear like a really boom sound, but really in your heart, like they should be exploding.

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

Jesus bases his whole argument in everything he's saying on verse 8.

When he says son of man, he's referring to himself.

And if you read this verse, the way Matthew actually writes it, the very first word you should read is Lord.

It's emphatic.

Lord of the Sabbath, the Son of Man is.

Jesus is saying, I have absolute authority over the Sabbath.

If you're gonna say that, you'd better be the creator of the world.

You'd better be the creator of the world because he is the one who on the seventh day rested and told his people, you will observe this day, because on the seventh day I rested.

The claims of Jesus should make us either very uncomfortable or really comforted.

Jesus says, I am Lord of the Sabbath.

So track what he is saying.

Come unto me, all you who labor, and I will give you rest.

And then he says, I am Lord of the Sabbath.

The only people who receive this Sabbath rest are those who come under the Lordship of Christ.

The claims of Christ should make us really uncomfortable or really comfort us.

In the same chapter 12, verse 6, what does Jesus say?

I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

Something greater than the temple?

The temple represented the worship of God's people, it represented the presence of God.

If you're gonna say something greater than the temple is here, and you're referring to yourself and your mission, you'd better be God.

Something greater than the temple is here.

In John 1.51, Jesus says this, and I think this is in the, yeah, there we go, on the slide.

I tell you the truth that you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.

Jesus says about himself, I am the center of all heavenly activity.

I had Chat GPT just come up with kind of an image to help, to help us picture what this kind of looks like mentally.

So this is a chat GPT image.

Let's see.

Do you see the image on there?

If you do, you can show it.

Ah, there it is.

Jesus is saying, I am the one, and you see the way the wording starts, ascending and descending.

Like if you're gonna start on a ladder, like you know, starting bottom, going up, coming down.

Jesus is saying, I am the source of all heavenly activity, and I am the link between heaven and earth.

That's what Jesus is claiming.

He's claiming I am that ladder, that link between heaven and earth.

Nothing less than that.

I want you to hear what Jesus says in.

John 8 23.

And this might be on the scribe.

He said on the slide, he said to them, the scribes and the Pharisees, You are from below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world.

Listen to this.

I told you that you will die in your sins.

For unless you believe that I am He, who, the Messiah, who sent from heaven, you will die in your sins.

This is what C.S.

Lewis says, and I think I have the quote on the slide.

A man who was merely a man and said the sorts of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic, meaning a crazy person, or he would be the devil of hell.

Shut him up for a fool, spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can call at his feet and call him Lord and God.

Here's what I am saying.

If you do not know Jesus and haven't come under his lordship, you cannot experience this promised Sabbath rest that God promises in the Old Testament.

And if you die without believing in Jesus, you will die in your sins.

There's only one rightful response when it comes to Christ.

Do you know what that response is?

Can I show you all?

Really simple.

Your Lord.

It's that simple.

Anybody who can claim to be Lord of the Sabbath, who can claim to be greater than the temple, is either a crazy person?

Or he proves it and he shows he is God.

Do not take Jesus lightly.

Do not take Jesus lightly.

For you and I who are Christians, yes, we've come under the lordship of Christ who are spiritually.

We receive this Sabbath rest.

But can I ask you a question?

Who really has been in the driver's seat of your life between Monday, you know, last week or last Sunday and today?

Who really has been in the driver's seat of your life?

There's a song I think it's Carrie Underwood, is that her name?

Where she says, Jesus take the wheel.

Jesus doesn't just want the wheel of our lives, he wants to be in the driver's seat.

Who's been in the driver's seat of your time, your resources?

Who's been in the driver's seat?

Because the Lord of the Sabbath should be in that driver's seat.

So we come under his lordship by faith in him and in who he is.

I also want to point this out.

That spiritually we grow in our experience of Sabbath rest as we spend time with Jesus.

Matthew 11, 28, which we read earlier, Jesus said, and I think I have it on the screen, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

We're talking about this, you know, Sabbath rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

So we come to Him in faith, He gives us rest.

But there's more.

And for you and I who believe in Jesus, this is important.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

I think by using yoke, Jesus is saying, His teachings about the kingdom and who he is, coming under that sort of rule and learning from him, that's not a one-time thing.

That's an ongoing thing.

So, yes, we receive Sabbath rest when we come to him by faith.

But after we do, we grow in our experience of that as we spend time with Jesus.

When you look at this verse, you recognize this.

Jesus will not force his ways on us, he will not force his teachings on us.

We need to make a conscious decision to come under his teaching and his ways.

The word that is used, I'll give you rest.

Verse 30 says, For my yoke is easy, that's Matthew 11, 30.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

The word that's used for easy is a word that translates kindness in other places in the scripture.

And this is what one writer said Christ's yoke is like feathers to a bird, not loads, but helps to motion.

Did you hear that?

When you and I, what does it look like to come to Jesus and to learn of his ways?

I think it just looks like spending time with him in the scriptures and prayer.

Can I ask you an honest question and you can give me an honest answer in your mind?

So rhetorical question, but answer it.

How important, what priority have you placed on your times with Jesus?

Your times of prayer, your times of scripture reading?

Because here's the issue.

Everything else we do in life is gonna be a weight on our souls.

If you and I want rest for our souls, the only way it comes is taking upon that yoke and learning from Jesus.

Spending time with Jesus is really about us seeking rest.

How much rest do you want in your life?

I'm not saying you'll never get physically tired.

You will.

I'm not saying emotionally you like things won't get in turmoil often.

They still will.

But over time, you and I are supposed to be growing in our experience of this Sabbath rest.

But it only comes as we spend time with Jesus.

Saints, do you hear me?

Change the perspective on your on your quiet times, on your times with Jesus from something I need to check off a box and look at it this way.

I am going to the only place my soul can find rest.

Do you want that ongoing rest for your soul to grow in that experience?

Spend time with Jesus.

Jesus doesn't want to add rocks to your flight.

He wants to give you feathers to fly.

So there's that spiritual experience of the Sabbath rest.

And then I want you to see this relational side.

Simple answer according to the New Testament is you can if you want to, but you're not required to.

So if you want to spend like a special Sabbath thing on Saturdays, like some people do, this New Testament does not put that requirement on your conscience.

So you don't have to, but if you want, you can.

The main thing for you and I who are in Christ is to know that we receive our Sabbath rest in Christ.

So relationally, this is what I want us to see.

We expend Sabbath rest to those around us when we are kind to them.

Matthew 12, 1 to 8, Jesus is going through the grain fields, his disciples are hungry, they begin to pluck heads of grain, and then Jesus tells them, the Pharisees, if you had known what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless, for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

That verse, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, Jesus is quoting from Hosea.

And when and in Hosea, the word that's used for mercy is a Hebrew word for God's loving kindness toward us.

In fact, the King James Version translates Hosea 6.6 as loving kindness.

Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath saw the hunger of his disciples.

The Pharisees would have stopped them because of their man-made rules, because they were not merciful toward their fellow man.

I desire mercy, not sacrifices.

Sacrifices are practices of religion that they would have gone through.

For us, those sorts of external practices would probably look like coming to church, giving money, even preaching, for me who's up here preaching, all good.

But Jesus is pointing out that for those who have experienced Sabbath rest, relationally when they're relating with other people, the way they extend that Sabbath rest to them is by this word called mercy.

I desire mercy, which can be understood as kindness.

I desire kindness instead of external shows of allegiance to me.

When we reach out in kindness and refresh someone else, we've given them a taste of Sabbath rest that we found in Christ.

The way I picture this in my mind is this it's like a tree growing.

Plants grow toward light.

As you and I, who have experienced Sabbath rests in Christ, continue growing in our experience of that rest, it's like growing toward that light.

And the people who should find shade under that tree should be those who are around us.

And the way they experience that shade is through us extending kindness to them.

People who experience Sabbath rest should be kind people.

And so the question for you and I should be this.

And maybe let me even say it this way: do not be impressed by how I preach or I teach.

I hope I do a good job.

But if I do a really good job, don't be impressed by that.

Instead, be impressed by how I treat my wife and how I treat my children.

Because the principle Jesus is pointing out is this that is actually a much stronger indicator of how this Sabbath rest has worked in your heart than all the externals.

For us who are married, who have a spouse.

If you were to have a kindness meter for your spouse this week, how did you do?

I'm not asking how they did.

I'm asking how did you do?

For those two of us who are singles and have other relationships in our life where we interact with other people, if you were to look at the kindness meter in your life as one who has experienced Sabbath rest, okay, how would you say you're doing?

Because Jesus would say that that, as much as everything we're doing here as a church is important, setting up the equipment, setting up that, all these other things we do, as much as they're important, those who come under Sabbath rest should really be known by for their kindness.

So there's that spiritual aspect.

We receive that Sabbath rest when we come under the Lordship of Christ.

We continue and grow in that experience of Sabbath rest as we spend time with Jesus.

And then relationally, we extend Sabbath rest to those around us in our kindness to them.

And finally, is that eschatologically?

There is a final Sabbath rest yet to come, so remain faithful to Jesus.

There are still wars, still rumors of wars.

America just bombed Iran.

That hardly sounds like rest.

The physical world around us, there's tornadoes, there's tsunamis, plants and animals die.

So creation is still not experiencing this Sabbath rest that God intends for creation to experience.

That's because there is coming a future rest.

The rest that you and I receive spiritually for our souls will become complete rest physically and in the world around us when Jesus comes back.

Hebrews 4 says this, and I have these passages up on the screen so we can read them together.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

For we who have believed, believed in what?

In the person and work of Jesus.

Enter that rest.

You can go to the next slide.

For if Joshua had given them rest, who?

The Old Testament people, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

So there's two ideas in Hebrews 4.

We who believe in Jesus have entered that rest.

But then there remains a final rest yet to come.

That final rest yet to come is going to encompass everything, physically and the world around us.

And the person who will bring that is Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1 says this in the last days God has spoken to us through His Son.

The person who will bring this final rest is Jesus Christ.

Following Jesus is not easy, but hold on to him because there's a rest he's promised you and I.

That he wants us to experience one day.

That spiritual less rest will become this final rest when Jesus comes back.

That's by it.

Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for his lordship.

That for each one of us.

For those who do not know Jesus as Lord, that you would draw them by this by your spirit.

So they would come under his lordship.

And begin to experience this rest that Jesus promises.

And for us who have already come under your lordship, help us not to be passive, but continue pressing in on knowing you and spending time with you.

Because you want us to continually grow in that experience of Sabbath rest.

And it only comes from you.

Help each one of us to take you seriously, to take you at your word.

Help us to grow in our kindness one toward another.

In our families, in our homes, amongst one another here at Ethnos.

And Lord Jesus is coming a day when you will return.

When that promised rest shall be ours eternally.

In Jesus' name we pray.

I want to give you a moment to.