Harbor Church - Mid City

Spiritually Healthy Lives—Work & Rest

Lk. 6: 1-11; Mid-City March 28, 2010

 

This is the last message in our series on spiritually healthy lives and today we’re going to talk about work & rest. If you don’t know how to rest, you will never be spiritually healthy. And oh do we as Americans need rest.

 

I was reading an article in the New Yorker this week. It said, “In the nineteen-fifties and sixties, it was a commonplace that Americans would soon devote their lives to leisure, not work. The number of hours the average American worked had fallen by almost twenty-five per cent between 1900 and 1950, and pundits saw no reason for the trend to stop. By the end of the twentieth century, the futurist Herman Kahn prophesied in 1967, Americans would enjoy thirteen weeks of vacation and a four-day work week. The challenge, it seemed, would be figuring out what to do with all our free time.”

 

Is that your problem? You are trying to figure out what to do with all your free time on your 13 weeks of vacation and 4 day work weeks. Kahn and others totally missed the direction of America. What happened in the intervening years that so radically changed the trajectory America was on. Well, I read a number of different commentators on this, and let me summarize some of their thoughts as to why we are the most overworked, stressed out, restless culture in all of history:

 

American Dream: The boomer generation hit the work force. They were called boomers because of the huge boom of babies post WWII and they had a generally positive outlook on the American Dream, that their kids would live even better lives than they would, so they wanted to provide for them. But the cost of living was increasing and to handle it women began to hit the workforce like never before in history. So two-income households were becoming normal. Women were formerly this stabilizing force in America—now they are working 2 full-time jobs, one at home, one at the office. Pt: everyone is working more.

 

Technology: The computer—it was going to radically increase our efficiency so we could do less work. Right. Wrong. We just do more work now. And here is the big problem. We can take our computers with us everywhere so that now we never leave the office. The office is always with us and work is right there at our fingertips. Just one more email, text, or call. And you rub it in your pocket like Frodo did with the ring—longing to put it on but in some ways hating to put it on.

 

Cyclical Economy: The American economy from the 70s til now has gone from bear to bull, up and down. We’re in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression. It makes jobs precious. If you have one, you’ll do anything to keep it. If you don’t’, your working like crazy to get a job. Either way, you’re working more and you’re work is consuming you.

 

Social Stratification: That means the rich are getting increasingly richer and the poor are getting increasingly poor, but both are working more. Whereas CEOs used to make 10x more than the lower level employees, it is now upwards of 100x as much. You saw this in the public outcry of the bailout. But here is the thing. Both groups are working more. The CEOs have to work more because this is expected with their salary, and they are demanding more out of their lower level employees due to competition and the economy to maintain their bottom line and survive. So everyone is working more. No rest.

 

So what we have is a stressed out, overworked America. According to Jesus, what we need is a Sabbath rest. Sabbath is a churchy term, so let me define what I mean by that. It is one day in 7 that looks and feels different and is intended to bring about a deep soul rest to you, not only on this day but throughout your week. Now this morning I am going to give you 3 types of work that the church has historically put forth that you should do on the Sabbath if you want this deep, magical soul rest. Nothing new here—

 

1. Mercy Work

2. Necessary Job-Related Work

3. Worship Work

 

Now I am intentionally using the term work. There is certain work that you do that leads to rest. Let’s explore this by beginning with the 2^nd Sabbath controversy first in verses 6-11. Here Jesus meets a man whose hand was shriveled on the Sabbath. Now if he had a life-threatening injury, Jewish law would allow Jesus or a doctor to heal him, but since it was simply a shriveled hand that could be tended to on any day besides the day set aside for rest, Jewish law forbid this.

 

Look at what Jesus does. He has the man stand up and says in v9, “which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or destroy it?” Jesus is saying the point of the Sabbath is for you to know God’s salvation and mercy. This is mercy ministry. Healing the broken. Save lives physically& spiritually.

 

Mercy ministry has always been at the heart of the Sabbath. Showing mercy. This is why we try to give you opportunities to offer mercy to those in our city on Sunday. Cleaning alleys is one expression—there are lots more to come. When we clean streets, though it is work, it can actually bring a Sabbath rest to our souls. How? B/c physical acts of mercy help make future spiritual grace a present reality in your life. We’re remembering that God is going to make all things new. One day the streets will be paved with gold and be streets with dwelling. Somehow this intellectual and Biblical concept becomes more real and true in our hearts when we physically pick up a cigarette butt.

 

You, as a follower of Jesus, should be looking for other ways to enter into that Sabbath rest through acts of mercy or acts that demonstrate the holistic salvation of Jesus to all things. My wife just did this with our kids. Anastasia was teaching Ford and Milly in children’s church. The lesson was on Jesus washing his disciples feet. So she sent an email home to the parents describing what the lesson was about and encouraged the parents to look for a way to “wash someone’s feet in your neighborhood” through serving them in some way. My wife talked this over with the kids and they determined they could serve our neighbor who has cancer by taking her some flowers. So they stopped by the woman who sits in the parking lot of the dental office on Euclid and bought some flowers for 3 bucks for our neighbor who has cancer. Ford took those. Milly went into our yard and picked some weeds (I think one may have been a flower). And then Ford and Milly took the weeds and flowers across the street to her and when they gave her these flowers tears began to roll down her cheeks. She felt loved. See this was a small picture of helping a neighbor experience the mercy of God. And by participating in that, my wife and even Ford & Milly were moving into a Sabbath rest. They were setting their hearts on another day, when there will be no more cancer.

 

Get this: physical acts of mercy help make future spiritual grace a present reality in your life. You’re walking in the way of Jesus when you walk in mercy, and you meet him, and in Him Sabbath rest happens. So first pt: Sabbath rest involves doing mercy, bringing life to the city and people in the city. But here is the 2^nd big thing you should do on the Sabbath to rest: worship..

 

(2) Necessary Job-Related Work

But let me add one more thing to what you should be doing on the Sabbath to achieve a deep soul rest and that is necessary work. See Matthew also tells this story and he gives a detail about healing this man that Luke doesn’t. Listen to Mt. 12:11 as Jesus speaks,  ¹¹He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? ¹²How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

 

Jesus is dealing with agrarian people, many of whom herded sheep. Sheep were their business. So Jesus is pointing out the absurdity of not pulling out a sheep if it falls into a ditch. Nah, it is Sunday. Sorry sheepy sheep. Get back to you tomorrow.

 

My wife and I call this the sheep or donkey in a ditch passage. Sometimes things come up at the office that you will need to do on Sunday. Your sheep falls in a ditch. But you need to make sure that you have accountability in your life on this. Again—the importance of community. See, if your sheep is falling the ditch every Sunday, then you need a new Shepherd. Your Shepherd isn’t Jesus. So, on unbelievably rare occasions, you will need to do some of the same work you do from Monday-Sat on Sunday—necessary job-related work.

 

(3) Worship Work

See this is really the point that Jesus is driving home with the Pharisees. Sabbath rest comes from the work of worship.

 

You see this emphasis on worship in v1-5. Let’s look at it. The Pharisees accuse Jesus and his disciples of multiple Sabbath violations by picking a few heads of grain and chowing down. See they had developed what is called the halakah—this is Jewish law that was in addition to the Bible and they had a whole list of work that you couldn’t do on the Sabbath—treaping on the Sabbath (plucking), threshing on the Sabbath (hands), winnowing on the Sabbath (discarding), and preparing food on the Sabbath (eating). The nerdy side of me loved Leon Morris’ said, “Four distinct breaches of the Sabbath in one mouthful!”

 

We read this today and we roll our eyes. We all think—what a bunch of legalistic nutcases. Loosen up. Live a little. Have a beer or two. Your wound too tight.

 

Jesus’ advice is a bit different. He doesn’t say, “Ditch the Sabbath.” No. He doesn’t do away with the Sabbath, but he says “You are missing the point of the Sabbath. And he takes them back to 1 Sam 21 with a story about David and his men eating some “holy bread.”

 

In tabernacle, there were 12 loaves of consecrated bread in the holy place where only the priest was aloud to go. No one could eat the bread put out but the priests. King David, who was not a priest, ate it and was never condemned for it. What you have here is King David setting aside a ceremonial law because his men were starving. Jesus is saying that just as King David had the authority to set aside the ceremonial law regarding worship regulations when he was in a tight spot, so can I, as the King of Kings, set aside the ceremonial Sabbath regulations.

 

Skeptical: If you are skeptical about Christianity, then you say, “Well, how convenient. Jesus can just set aside any law he wants.” No he can’t. This is very different than Jesus setting aside the moral law in a time of great need. Never do you see Jesus do this or allow this—well, I had to murder the baker because my men needed bread. No.

 

He is setting aside the religious, ceremonial law—things like Sabbath regulations are provisional. They are temporary until something comes along that makes them no longer necessary. This is why Jesus says in v5, “I am Lord of the Sabbath.” He is saying I am the one that all the Sabbath regulations all pointed to. I can give you the deep soul rest that you most need. I am the Lord of Rest. If you want rest, you must come to me.

 

Now why? Why can Jesus make that claim and no one else can? Go back to Ex. 20:11, “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.” God rested. Was God tired? What is going on? No. If you go and look at Gen. 1, you see this sing-song pattern. God made the light, and it was good. God made the plants, and it was good. All the way down to the last day and he says it was very good. He looks at His creation and he is completely satisfied. That, my friends, is resting—to be utterly and completely satisfied in the work you have done.

 

Think thanksgiving meal here. We made sweet potato casserole, and it was good. We made turkey, and it was good. We made cornbread dressing, and it was good. And then, after you have consumed the whole spread and are completely and utterly satisfied with it, you undo your belt and exclaim, “It was very good.” And you must rest, because you can’t move. Now that is resting—to be completely and utterly satisfied with your work.

 

Here is the question. Is it possible for us to rest like this Thanksgiving Dinner sort of way when it comes to our work. Well, according to Heb. 4:9, we can rest from our work in the same way God did. Heb. 4:9, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.” See it is possible for us to have a Sabbath rest from our work like God. How? Heb. 4:2, “For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith.” The secret to resting from your work is the gospel. Worship through the gospel—the good news of Jesus.

 

Now those of you who are not followers of Jesus are objecting at this point--why does putting your faith in Jesus bring you rest from your work? To answer that you really must know the gospel story of Jesus. So let me try to tell you the gospel story through the lens of Gen 1, Heb. 4, and Luke 6. In the beginning, the Lord of Creation (God the Father) asked the Lord of the Sabbath (God the Son) to go to work—to go and do the work of bringing a people who were slaves to their work and to bring them into a Sabbath Rest. Theologians call this the Covenant of Redemption. And the Lord of the Sabbath did just that. He lived for us and did all the work we were supposed to do under the law, and all along the Father said, “It is good—this is Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Then, in the most difficult and stressful day of work in all of human history, Jesus did the work that no one would ever want to do on the cross.

 

He was beaten, nails were driven in, but even worse, sin was heaped upon him, and as a result, His father’s approval was removed, His Father’s presence was gone. And then, at the end of this dark day of work, the Lord of the Sabbath cried out, “It is finished.”

 

Finally, the work was over. And 3 days later, on Easter, the Lord of Creation, resurrected His Son, the Lord of the Sabbath, from the dead, saying, “It is good. The work my Son has done is very good.” Now, my Son, Lord of the Sabbath, bring all those who are slaves to their work into the Sabbath rest that their heart is longing for by giving them your presence.

 

Don’t you see. You were made for this rest, a Sabbath rest in Jesus, and He is the only one who can bring it to you. Vacations won’t work. Why do you think that you always come back from a vacation more tired than when you actually left. Haven’t you ever felt like you need a vacation from your vacation.

 

Why is that? B/c the RPM’s of our heart get revved up so high at work that it is really difficult to downshift. When you are in 4^th or 5^th gear and you are gunning, it takes days and weeks to downshift. But what we try to do on vacation is go from 4^th to 1^st in one week and it doesn’t work. Work is still there. The RPMs are still revving.

 

I tried it. I was 16 and learning to drive a stick shift. My dad and I were going about 50 miles per hour in 4^th gear, RPMs revving, and rather than downshifting to 3rd, I went a little left of center to 1^st, and there was grinding and my Dad & I lurched forward, nearly slamming into the windshield and it sounded like the car was going to explode. See that is the tension of trying to rest without Jesus.

 

And it isn’t just on vacations. Try relaxing after a really hard day of work when you know that the pressure is on when you get back to the office tomorrow. That is like going from 5^th at 85 MPH to 1^st. You get comments from your spouse or partner or friends like, “You are physically here, but not in any other way.” At least that is what others tell me—I never get comments like that.

 

How many times have you said this, “Honey, I am crazy busy right now. But once we get out of this paycheck to paycheck life, I’ll slow down and rest. Once taxes are in, once things stabilize at the office. NO!” No circumstance will bring you the deep rest that your heart is longing for. If the office is Lord you’ll never rest.

 

But if you make Lord of the Sabbath Lord of your heart--then you’ll rest and the RPMs will slow down. Because then, he Lord of Creation will say to you, “You are good. You’re very good in my sight. I love you,” and the RPMs finally slow down and you rest.

 

Sunday, the Sabbath, is built to ground you in this gospel soul rest that comes through the work of worship—making the Lord of the Sabbath Lord in your heart.

 

Some of you have never felt or experienced this deep soul rest because you have never trusted Jesus.

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Service	General Offering MidCity Stephen Phelan Roberto Shim Danny Kim Sarah Wiese David Diaso Jr.
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