Sabbath Rest

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Mattthew 11:28-30)

Dear Friends and Members of IBC,

This week we begin a new series in our weekly ‘Word for the Week’, as different guest writers from our church share with us what is on their hearts. This week, Karl Wolf shares about Sabbath Rest. Enjoy!

God bless you

James

 

From Karl Wolf:

It’s beautiful that Jesus, the “LORD of the Sabbath” (Jesus claims this name in Luke 6:5 and elsewhere), knows exactly what we need. Just knowing that he desires rest for us can bring us rest. Even more so, God commands that we rest. What is Sabbath rest and where do we find it?

Verse 29 ends with the words, “for your souls”. This is a deep rest – it is beyond physical rest. This is the rest that God desires for us. He knows that we need this weekly. We all know it is possible to have a full night of sleep, yet awake tired. We know how it feels to harbor a constant worry. So, it should not come as a surprise that God, who made us, commands us to rest. We need and long for rest for our souls. The good news is that God also provides the Way (Jesus) to that perfect rest.  

Learn how God provides your Sabbath rest.
Perhaps it’s typical, when asked about Sabbath rest, we think about not doing things. But that isn’t necessarily restful. If you work physically during the week, yes: How restful is an afternoon nap! But if you sit at a desk, John Piper suggests, “maybe you should ride a bike!”. Regardless of what Sabbath rest looks like for each of us, we should not strive to achieve it. We can easily move from God’s desire for us to rest…to our aim to make it so!? Knowing what Jesus said in Matthew 11, He will give us rest. He provides the rest–we should ask to receive it!  

It’s odd that Jesus uses a metaphor for working animals to explain rest. But this describes the time we spend in Jesus’s presence for our entire lives. And in so doing, we learn from him just how to rest. If we walk with Him daily, He will show us exactly what we need for Sabbath rest. 

Spend time in God’s Word, in worship, and in prayer.
There are many ways to observe Sabbath rest, but all aim to set the day apart…to make it different from the rest of the week. One mark of Sabbath rest may be: Preaching to our souls. How do we do that? Through reading of God’s Word, prayer, and singing. Sometimes with a strong rebuke to our souls: “Don’t you believe that for a second…those words are from Satan!” Satan can turn Sabbath rest into a time navel-gazing.  

Corporate worship is also an integral part of Sabbath rest.  Our worship team leads us occasionally in the song, I’m So Blessed.  The bridge says, “On my best day I’m a child of God.  On my worst day, I’m a child of God.  Every day’s is a good day.  And you’re the reason why.”  

It goes on: “it doesn’t matter about the rest”. I believe that last line refers to physical rest. If we have true Sabbath rest, a rest for our soul, even physical exhaustion does not matter.  

When talking about identity, Tim Keller notes that if we base our identity on anything other than God (on “identity achieved rather than received”), we will never rest. Sabbath rest should dwell in our identity as a child of God (every day, actually). Let us remember this as we go through the rest of the week!