Honoring the Sabbath is not about resting and having a day of leisure. It is about not doing your own work but doing the works of God. Hebrews 4:10 for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. See Also: Matthew 11:28-30. We find true rest when we are in the Spirit and working for God.
Jesus and the Father
work every day. Doing work and the will of God is resting in Christ when we as
Christians are at work for God.
John 5:16: So,
because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began
to persecute him.
John 5:17: In his
defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day,
and I too am working.”
John 5:18: For this
reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the
Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with
God.
John 5:19: Jesus gave
them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he
can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the
Son also does.
John 5:20: For the
Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even
greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.
John 5:21: For just
as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life
to whom he is pleased to give it.
Jesus talked with the
woman at the well when He was thirsty and hungry and when His disciples came
back with food, Jesus said that He had food that they did not know about and it
was to do the work and will of God.
There are two reasons
why Christians get tired when working for God. One is that they are in the
flesh and not in the Spirit. You cannot do God’s work in your own strength. The
Bible says that it is not by power and might but by my Spirt. The second reason
that Christians get tired working for God is that they place themselves under
the law. They come up with formulas, techniques, systems, principles and rules
to do God’s work or to have a system of success to obtain something from God.
Example: Some
Christian Leaders teach that you need to read your Bible every day and pray
every day and speak the scriptures out loud in order to be healed of your
disease, aliment or affliction or sickness. Mark 5:36 says that we need to
“only believe”. Those who have the gift of healing just need to heal like Jesus
did by speaking and laying on hands to heal. Anything else is legalism.
https://christcrosscrucified.com/
What is the purpose
of Sabbath?
Did God intend
believer’s in Christ to take one day per week and basically do nothing and just
rest? The Church today thinks God wants them to have a day where you put your
feet up and fold your hands all day once a week. They want amusement,
entertainment and relaxation or if you are religious then you will read the
Bible and pray for most of the day and eat little once per week. Is this what
the Sabbath is all about? NOT!
Who came up with the
9 to 5 work schedule Monday thru Friday and every weekend off? Why does the
Church copy from the world? Has the Church become Legalistic?
Jesus said in John
4:34, 5:17 and 9:4 that He had work to do and to finish it. Jesus healed many
people on the Sabbath and was frequently accused of breaking the Sabbath
because He had done some work. Jesus worked every day when He was on earth and
yet He fulfilled all righteousness and kept all of the law. How did He do this?
Read Hebrews 4:10. We as Christians are to cease from our own works and do the
work of God. This is what the Sabbath means: Cease from your own work and do
the work of God.
Read Matthew chapter
11:28 come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
29 Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest
unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light.
We as Christians find
rest in working for God, so every day is a Sabbath. The word yoke mentioned
here as to do with working with Jesus. Jesus found pleasure and rest working
for the Father. He told the disciples that He had food that they did not know
about when he talked with the woman at the well.
God wants us to have
a relationship with Him. He speaks to us and we follow Him in everything we do.
We do only the work and His will that He wants. He does this by the Holy
Spirit.
Bill Naugle
https://christcrosscrucified.com/
