Complete Rest Awaits All In Jesus

When you read the Gospels carefully you note that Jesus did some in-your-face things on the Sabbath. For instance, he said nothing when his hungry disciples plucked heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. But that was work and God had strictly forbidden anyone to work on the Sabbath (Exod. 20:9-12). So the proud fundamentalists, the Pharisees, challenged him and his followers. "Hey! your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. They're working!"

Jesus' replied,

"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." - Mat 12:3-8 ESV 

The David story comes from that time when David and his men had to flee for their lives from the wrath of King Saul. Being hungry and without food, David begged Abimelech the priest for bread. All Abimelech had to give was the so-called "bread of the Presence." This was 12 loaves of bread baked each week and placed on a special gold-inlayed table in the Temple as an offering and memorial before the LORD (Lev. 24:5-9). Only the priests were allowed to eat it, but Abimelech broke that rule by giving it to David and his men.

Beyond that, Jesus continued, if you really want to talk about people not working on the Sabbath, consider the priests. They work every Sabbath, offering sacrifices and leading the congregation in worship in the temple. And yet they are not condemned. Two things were overlooked and rejected by the Pharisees—and the bulk of Israel's religious leaders.

• Something greater than the temple is here. What is at stake here is an understanding of what all the rules and laws about the temple and the worship of God were all about. These were all summarized by the prophet Hosea when he condemned the hypocricy of the priests and their sacrifices. Speaking for the LORD, Hosea said, "For I desire steadfast love (or mercy) and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." - Hosea 6:6 ESV

• Some-One greater than the temple is here. Standing before them was the Son of Man, the promised Messiah, sent by the Father in heaven to bring the mercy of God to all men. He is the One who correctly interprets the meaning of God's command about the Sabbath. From the beginning, the Sabbath day with all its demands to rest pointed to that Day when God would bring final rest to all His children. On that Day God will give His people total and complete rest, rest that includes forgiveness of all sins and the fulfilled promise of a new heaven and a new earth—all because of what Jesus was to accomplish by His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. 

It is to this that the Hebrews letter points. 

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. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. - Hebrews 4:9-11 ESV 

To strive here does not refer to rushing about trying to prove to God that you are such a righteous and holy person. Absolutely not! Instead it refers to humbly confessing your sins and throwing yourself upon the endless mercy of God now revealed in Jesus. And this you may do with utter confidence.

More about our great High Priest and the grace He brings next time.

Our Radical Need For Rest

The world we live in is filled with anxiety, stress and tension. And we don't know how to get rid of it. As a result so very many of us cannot sleep. And that can indeed be a very, very serious problem. Lack of sleep, even for one night, can reduce your daytime alertness by as much as a third and impair your memory and ability to think. Studies indicate that sleepiness doubles the risk of getting hurt on the job. In the U.S. the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that each year drowsy driving is responsible for 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries and as many as 1,550 fatalities.

Sleep is not an option. Lots of studies support what our bodies tell us. We have to sleep. But there is an even deeper need. The writer to the Hebrews calls it God's Rest ! After pointing out that the first generation descendants of Israel led by Moses out of slavery in Egypt never received it, the writer continues.

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 good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, 

"As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest,'" although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 

For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works" (Gen. 2:2). 

And again in this passage he said, "They shall not enter my rest" (Deut. 1:34-35).  

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, 

"Today," saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts" (Ps. 95:7-11). 

For if Joshua had given them rest, 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. - Hebrews 4:1-10 ESV

The entire OT points to God's promised Sabbath-rest. We learn from Scriptures that God created the week of seven days and decreed that His people should rest on the seventh as He did. Some Rabbis in days gone by asked if God did anything before He rested on the seventh day. Yes, they replied, He had one more thing to do. Before He could step back to exult and delight in His work of creating, He created peace, joy and happiness. He did this because He wants His children to celebrate with Him the perfect balance and marvelous wonder of all He has created. He wants to bless them with an entire day in which to rejoice and be happy as they ponder upon and celebrate His wisdom and goodness.

This is what the LORD promised Israel when He led them out of slavery under Moses' leadership. In essence He was promising, "Trust Me, follow Me, obey Me and I will bring you into the land I promised to your forefather Abraham. It is a land overflowing with good things, food, drink and all you need for life. I will make you secure. You will become the mightiest nation upon earth and no enemies will ever harm you again. I will put my name upon you and bless you, for you are My children."

But they blew it. They threw it away. They hardened their hearts, complaining and chasing after idols. And so they all perished in the wilderness. No rest for the wicked. No rest for unbelievers. But . . .

"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" (Hebrews 4:9-10 ESV). 

Rest is still waiting for you today! God holds it out: perfect peace, happiness, security, fullness and joy.  It awaits you and you have nothing to do to gain it other than to trust Him. More on this next time.

No Rest, No Sleep, No Hope—Forever!

I'm not a night owl. I have zero appreciation for those of you who love to stay up into the wee hours of the morning. My eyes begin to droop around 10 p.m. I want my bed. I need my rest and I want it to start long before midnight. Then when 6:30 a.m. comes I'm rested and ready to roll out to begin the new day. I've had my eight and I'm on the way.

Whether you're a lark like me or an owl, one of the huge problems of our day is getting enough sleep. Tons of products promise to put you to sleep. Some work for some. Many don't and they droop along through the day, fighting to keep going. Stress, anxiety and tension follow and soon sickness of one sort or another sets in. Can't sleep, can't work, not gonna make it.

That's what happened to the thousands who were rescued from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses and the saving Hand of the LORD. They didn't make it. It's all recorded in the Biblical Book of Exodus. They made it out, but the foreboding wilderness of Sinai stood between them and the Promised Land. And when they came up to the very borders with orders to march, they caved in. They believed the reports of most of the spies. Those guys are as big as giants; its hopeless, they said. And so Israel turned back in doubt and rebellion toward the heat and horror of the desert. Hebrews puts it this way:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'" - Hebrews 3:7-11 ESV

No rest for the wicked. And the most wicked thing you can do is to doubt the promises of the loving and forgiving Savior. That's what the Children of Israel did. They gave it up. They threw in their towels. They lost hope and turned to other gods. They didn't, they wouldn't believe in the LORD who brought them out and set them on the path leading to freedom and security. So they invited the anger of the LORD upon themselves.

I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest." Hebrews 3:11 ESV

And the LORD's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, 'Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.' And the LORD's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone. - Num 32:10-13 ESV 

No rest, no sleep, no hope. That's today's warning for all who once claimed to be members of the household of God in Christ Jesus, but threw it all away in unbelief and rebellion.

Take care, brothers (and sisters), lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. - Hbr 3:12 ESV

It's hell not to be able to sleep in the darkness, plagued by fear, guilt and remorse. It's hell to wander through the house, staring out at the night while everyone around you is quietly and happily taking deep breaths in sleep. No rest, no sleep, no hope. That's your future if you throw away all that is freely given to you in Jesus. No rest, no sleep, no hope—forever!

 

                 

Time To Step Aside To Rest Awhile

For the past couple years I've made it my goal to publish three posts per week. Requisite research and reading took many hours besides. And that without any breaks.

Now it is time to step aside for a few weeks. In that, I'm following our LORD's advice about rest. Not only did He command the Sabbath, a day of rest each week for prayer and family, but He built into the life of ancient Israel  festival weeks, times when family and friends got together to hear God's Word, worship, praise, celebrate and eat with family and friends.

Here's what we read in Mark's account of Jesus and his disciples after they heard about the murder of John the Baptist.

Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time

Image courtesy of yearintheoffice.wordpress.com

to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. - Mar 6:30-32 NKJV

I am stepping aside for the month of August to be with my wife, to travel, to visit friends and relatives and to rest a while.

See you in September.

Jesus, The ONLY Way To The Father

It is common these days to claim that there are many paths to God. For example we read this quote from Ramakrishna (1833-86), the Bengali Hindu sage, lifted up as true spiritual wisdom:

“God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.”

This approach is very popular in these days. And one of the biggest and most popular leaders of the many paths approach is Oprah Winfrey. No one quite knows what Oprah believes. In a September, 2005 book, The Gospel According To Oprah, Marcia Z. Nelson says that there are several major Christian themes that weave through her life and work: confession, redemption, healing, mission, forgiveness and salvation. Nelson sees Oprah as a "compelling spiritual teacher in a spiritually eclectic and ever-practical America." But what exactly her credo is, well, no one really knows.

And then there's Jesus!

On that night before his trial and crucifixion Jesus met with his disciples to tell them he was going to his Father's house to prepare a place for them. "And," he said, "you know the way to where I am going."

Thomas, ever the practical and literal doubter, replied, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"
To this Jesus said,

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." - Jhn 14:6-7 ESV

How strange. How very non-modern and un-American: No one comes to the Father except through me? Surely this is not what Jesus meant. No one but Jesus? He alone is the way? He alone the truth? He alone the life? Surely not.

Note Jesus' peculiar views of God to begin with. He claims to be God. God is his Father and he is the way to the Father. When Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus says,

"Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. - Jhn 14:9-11 ESV

 To see Jesus is to see the Father. The Father dwells in Jesus. He is in the Father. The Father is in Jesus. 

Again and again and again the New Testament writers emphasize the divinity of Jesus Christ. Again and again Jesus claims to be one with the Father. In him we come upon the great mystery of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All this is conveniently ignored by those like Oprah. If, however, you want to find true rest for your troubled soul, forgiveness for your many sins and the absolute certainty of life eternal, then come to Jesus. Listen again to his invitation.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 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." - Mat 11:27-30 ESV

Rest At Last

Three times a year all Jewish men were required to appear before the LORD God at the three great Festivals or Feasts of Unleavened Bread (Passover), Harvest (Pentecost - 50 days after Passover) and Ingathering at the end of the year (Booths). See Exodus 23:14-17; 34:17.

As we return to a study of John 7 we see Jesus finally arriving about at the middle of the weeklong Feast of Booths (Sept.-Oct. in our numbering). He began to teach in the temple and, as usual, people were astounded by his knowledge. However, as had often happened, he was challenged not only for what he taught, but also for what he had done earlier in the year during the Passover Feast. What he had done was to heal a paralyzed man at the pool called Bethesda (John 5:1-16). What got especially the Pharisees so stirred up was not that he had healed the man, but that he had done it on the Sabbath. Not only had he healed the paralytic, he also commanded him to work on the Sabbath by carrying his pallet-bed as he walked for the first time in 38 years! This was a clear violation of the law to do no work on that day.

But they missed the entire point of the Sabbath commandment. This day was not only a day to rest, pray and be with one's family. It also pointed forward to the ultimate rest promised to God's people. When Messiah came God would bring to His people eternal rest, peace and security. Jesus pointed to the fact that he was that Messiah. In him all God's promises were to be fulfilled. He speaks about this as he says,

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." - Matt 11:28-30 ESV

In Christ we have rest from all fear of punishment for our sins. Jesus' healing on the Sabbath points to that, especially among people who were taught that illness was a result of specific sins on the part of those who were sick (John 9:2). Again and again Jesus makes his point by healing people on the Sabbath. Examples include his

• healing a man's deformed hand (Mark 3:1-5)
• casting out a demon from a man in the Capernaum synagogue (Luke 4:33-36)
• healing a woman crippled for 18 years (Luke 13:11-17)
• healing a man suffering from dropsy (Luke 14:1-6)

The Sabbath always foreshadowed the Rest of God, the return to paradise (the experience of

Adam and Eve in the original Garden of Eden). When that blessed Rest comes, all the children

of God will dwell with Jesus in God’s eternal Seventh Day. Jesus made this promise to the

believing thief who died beside him on the cross just prior to the Passover Sabbath. “I tell you the

truth,” Jesus said, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). The same promise holds

true for all believers.

The Sabbath was always the ultimate sign, pointing to Jesus as the promised Messiah and Lord of the Sabbath. He came to bring all men that mercy of God foreshadowed by the Sabbath. Mercy is what God is all about. That was why Jesus permitted his disciples to pluck heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. That was why, a thousand years before Jesus, David and his men, fleeing for their lives, ate the showbread from the Tabernacle. That was why priests serving in the temple on the Sabbath were guiltless. Jesus emphasized again and again that the Jews rescued their sheep that had fallen into a pit and watered their cattle on the Sabbath. Surely then men were of greater value than sheep or cattle.

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. - Hbr 4:9-10 ESV

This is also why the church no longer observes the Old Covenant Sabbath. What it pointed toward is now fulfilled. The Rest-Giver has come. He has offered Himself as the sacrifice for all men's sins. He has returned from death on the third day. He is now among us in His Supper. This is what we celebrate.  So we observe the commandment by gathering to worship and praise the risen Christ on His day, the Eighth Day, the day pointing toward the great Day of His return when we will have perfect rest and peace forever.

The Cross Of Marriage

My wife and I have often shared the story of how we met and what incidents led us to become engaged and finally married. Every couple has such a story to tell. The Christian couple says with the confidence of faith, "This was the LORD's doing. He led us to one another." Or to use formal language, our marriage is a vocation, a calling. Lets look at that understanding of marriage.

We start by defining what the Bible means by a calling or a vocation. In this life on earth Christ our Lord calls us to follow Him. The old hymn says it well.

Come, follow Me, the Savior spake,
All in My way abiding;
Deny yourselves, the world forsake,
Obey My call and guiding.
Oh, bear the cross, whate’er betide,
Take My example for your guide.

We understand our calling in the light of Peter's words,

"For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:20-21). 

And again, Jesus words,

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:24-25).

There are two calls. The first is a call to faith. That happened when we were buried with Christ by baptism into death and brought forth again to life. As a result, we Christians confess,

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). 

This is His call into the Kingdom, His call to receive the rich gift of forgiveness and life eternal. The second call is to take up our cross and follow Him. In that call we find our lives. Jesus emphasizes this again and again.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Mat 10:39).

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 (Mat 11:29). 

So when Jesus calls us, man or woman, to take up our crosses and follow Him in the marriage relationship, He is calling us in very specific and concrete ways to lose our lives in the service of our spouses—for His sake. In other words, I am called by Jesus as a husband to love my wife, Sylvia, by dying to my own desires and rising again with Jesus to serve her, to forgive her, to care for her, to nourish and protect her. The same is true for each and every Christian spouse. This is what the Apostle is getting at in Ephesians 5:20-26 when he calls upon us believers to serve one another—in the name of Jesus .

Now it may seem strange to use the language of the cross when speaking about marriage. The world around us would certainly reject such an attitude. From the world we hear talk about love, love, love. The offended spouse says, "I don't love her any longer. She's not attractive to me. That's why I fell in love with this other woman. Now I want a divorce so I may marry my new found love."

"Not so," says the believer. "Jesus has called me to take up my cross and follow Him. I will serve my Savior and Lord by denying my self-centered, sinful, selfish desires for the sake of my wife whom He has given to me to serve. I will forgive her and reject the temptation to get involved with that other. I will be there for her, to guide, protect and care for her no matter what. When she offends me, I will forgive her. When she gets sick, I will nurse her. When she is happy, I will celebrate with her. When she is afraid I will protect her. When she is lonely I will come to her. And when she is sad and troubled I will comfort her. This is my calling, my cross to bear in the name of Jesus and as His servant."

The amazing and wondrous thing is that in so doing I find life. I come upon a mystery otherwise hidden from me. I discover what it means to be a whole, complete person. From Jesus I learn a new gentleness, contentment, deep joy, happiness and rest—an inner, psychic peace unknown before.

This is the cross we believing spouses bear in our marriages. And in our cross we find peace and joy!

 

Observing The Sabbath - According to Jesus

The Day of Rest
________________________
Biblical Teaching About Time

—An online book about rest and worship—
By Dr. Al Franzmeier

Chapter 6

The Sabbath And The New Testament
_________________________

“Had any good Sabbath rests lately?” I asked a young visitor, as she settled into the easy chair in my office.

“Matter of fact,” she replied, “last Saturday was very, very busy. My Aunt Grace is coming to visit with us for a few days next week and Mom gets all worked up about having the house clean. She was ordering us around all day.”

I smiled knowingly. “Happens at our house too. My wife worries about the relatives finding some dust.”

“Mom too and she has to plan meals for every day and buy groceries. She’s taking a couple days vacation while Aunt Grace is here so the two of them can go antiquing.”

“Should be fun. I gather that your weekend was pretty busy.”

“Right. The only rest we had was the couple hours we spent at church last Sunday.”

That piece of a conversation leads into this chapter’s discussion about the meaning of the Sabbath for the believers in New Testament times. In an earlier chapter I pointed out that the rules and regulations about the Old Covenant Sabbath, as well as the other feasts and festivals, no longer apply since they all pointed to Jesus. He is the long awaited Messiah, come as foretold by the prophets. The feasts of the Old Covenant are now fulfilled. What they pointed to is present in Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God. To continue to observe them would signify a falling back into the Old Covenant, as if the Messiah (Christ) had never come.

“Wait a minute,” you may be saying. “It almost sounds like Christians only need nine commandments. The one about remembering the Sabbath no longer applies.”

I am not saying that, although that’s exactly how many Christians act when they claim their freedom in Christ and ignore what the Third Commandment is all about. As we open this up a bit more you’ll be able to get a better grasp on the New Testament teaching.

Jesus observed and fulfilled the Sabbath 

Until His resurrection, the Lord Jesus faithfully observed the Jewish festivals and days of worship. Look at a few examples. During the final days of his life Jesus went with his disciples to Jerusalem to observe the Passover. While there, he gave specific instructions on how and where to prepare for the great Passover festival. During that particular festive gathering he initiated the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:17-30).


Luke tells us that it was Jesus’ custom to observe the Sabbath by teaching in the synagogue. Once when teaching in the synagogue of his hometown of Nazareth on a particular Sabbath, he was nearly killed by the residents of the town. Many of the folks gathered that day were even related to him. After reading a lesson from the prophet Isaiah about the Jubilee Year he said he was the one sent to usher Jubilee in. That really got them angry, because they couldn’t think of him as anything but the son of a carpenter by the name of Joseph. They chased him out of the synagogue and out of town, even threatening to throw him off a cliff. That’s probably why he moved his headquarters to Capernaum, Peter’s hometown (Luke 4:14-30).

Early in his public ministry, in the fall, Jesus went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. You may recall that this was the time when everyone camped out for a week, eating, celebrating and remembering how the Lord brought their forefathers through the wilderness to the land in which they now lived. During that week Jesus got into a big argument with the Pharisees and temple priests who condemned him for healing a a paralyzed man by the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath. In their eyes, he had broken the commandment by working—by healing.

In response, Jesus pointed out that the Jews circumcised on the Sabbath in accordance with the strict Law of Moses. The Torah specifically said that a boy baby must be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. If that day landed on the Sabbath, the Rabbis taught that the baby must be circumcised. In other words, the circumcision law preceded and overruled the Sabbath command to rest (John 7:1-24).

They had a point, however. Jesus could have waited until the day after the Sabbath to heal the blind man, but he wanted to make a point of his own. Again and again he chose the Sabbath as the day for his healing miracles in order to direct the people toward the full meaning of Sabbath. He was Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:13-17), sent by his Father, even though his own hometown people had rejected the idea. By returning to his Father after suffering on the cross, he would be ushering in the eternal Sabbath, the eternal day of rest to which the Seventh Day had always pointed. They who put their faith and trust in the mercy and forgiving love of the Lord would finally enter the eternal Sabbath-rest longed for in the weekly Sabbaths. Jesus, by his healing miracles, was giving them signs of what that rest would mean.

The Chief Priests and their crowd didn’t get it. As a result of this very hot argument, they tried to arrest Jesus, but were afraid to see it through. John writes that at the time Jesus was very popular with the people and his time had not yet come.

On the eighth day, the last and greatest of the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests led a procession from the Pool of Siloam to the Jewish temple. In the temple they poured out water on the main altar to represent the water that the Lord had provided their forefathers in the Exodus wilderness journey. At that very moment Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John wrote that by this Jesus meant the Holy Spirit whom believers were later to receive (John 7:37-39).

Jesus came to fulfill all the feasts and festivals of the Old Covenant. His healing miracles on the Sabbath served to emphasize that. The Greek verb ‘to fulfill’ (plerein) means to bring to pass (the prophecies of old). Examples of fulfilled prophecies abound, For instance, when Mary gave birth to Jesus she fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel ”(Matthew 1:22-23).

Again, when Mary and Joseph went to Egypt they fulfilled what the prophet Hosea had said about God calling His Son out of Egypt. Hosea’s prophecy was initially about the infant nation of Israel being led out of bondage in Egypt. Now Jesus, standing in for all the children of God, was leading them out of the bondage of sin by way of the cross (Matthew 2:13-15).

Jesus chose to heal on the Sabbath 

Jesus chose to heal on the Sabbath to emphasize that he was the promised Messiah. There are numerous examples. He healed a man’s deformed hand on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:9-14). He cast out a demon from a man in the synagogue of Capernaum on the Sabbath (Mark 1:21-28).

In Galilee on the Sabbath he healed a woman crippled for eighteen years. For this he was strongly criticized. They used the same old argument about working on the Sabbath. The synagogue ruler, cold as nails, said, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” This stirred up Jesus. He answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water?”

They did, of course. Then Jesus went on to drive his point home. “Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

His opponents were humiliated and the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing (Luke 13:9-11).

Another time, while eating in the home of a prominent Pharisee on the Sabbath, he healed a man suffering from dropsy. Dropsy refers to various fluids collected in the cavities of the body or limbs, because of a malfunctioning heart, liver, kidneys and so forth. The Greeks called it the water disease. Nobody had a cure.

Jesus healed him and got into big trouble again. In response Jesus again pointed to their family and their animals. “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?”

The answer was obvious. They had no response (Luke 14:1-6).

But let’s go back to the case of that paralyzed man by the Pool of Bethesda whom Jesus healed on the Sabbath (John 5:1-14). Jesus initially responded to his critics that his Father never stops working, so why should he? By this the Jews understood him to say he was equal to God, as indeed he was. After all, Jesus said, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him."

They were correct. He was indeed claiming to be the Lord, come to bring that rest foreshadowed by the Sabbath.

The Sabbath always foreshadowed the Rest of God, the return to paradise (the experience of Adam and Eve in the original Garden of Eden). When that blessed Rest comes, all the children of God will dwell with Jesus in God’s eternal Seventh Day. Jesus made this promise to the believing thief who died beside him on the cross just prior to the Passover Sabbath. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:39-43). The same promise holds true for all believers.

The Sabbath was always the ultimate sign, pointing to Jesus as the promised Messiah and Lord of the Sabbath. He came to bring all men that mercy of God foreshadowed by the Sabbath. Mercy is what God is all about. That was why Jesus permitted his disciples to pluck heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. That was why, a thousand years before Jesus, David and his men, fleeing for their lives, ate the showbread from the Tabernacle. That was why priests serving in the temple on the Sabbath were guiltless. Jesus emphasized again and again out that the Jews rescued their sheep that had fallen into a pit and watered their cattle on the Sabbath. Surely then men were of greater value than sheep or cattle.

Following up on this insight, the Apostles emphasized that all those laws, regulations and rituals of the Old Covenant are no longer binding for New Testament believers.

But wait! This is getting confusing.  We learned that the Sabbath commandment still stands, but now we’re hearing that the laws and rituals of the Old Covenant are not binding. What is going on?
It’s all explained in the New Testament Book of Hebrews. Briefly, the writer says the sacrifices of cattle and birds, the ritual washings, the festivals, the weekly Sabbaths, circumcision—all of the rituals and festivals—were but shadows. They were prophecies, pointing believers toward what was to come. The shadow is not the same as the body. It has no real substance. The real thing is the body that blocks out the light and so casts the shadow. That body, writes the Apostle Paul, is Christ. Now that the body is present, we turn from the shadows to embrace him. He is both the body and the head of the body of which we are all members (Hebrews 10:1-10).

Conclusion: it is not circumcision—or any other ritual—that saves, but Christ. Through the Spirit, believers eagerly await the hope of righteousness in Christ. They don’t boast of being circumcised or of having kept any other commandment. God forbid! Their boasting rests in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him all believers await a new creation. The true children of God are those who believe in Jesus and put their trust in him, regardless of race or nationality, Jews, Germans, Americans, blacks, whites or whatever. All are members of his household, built upon the foundation laid down by the prophets and extended by the apostles as they taught believers the meaning of the rituals and festivals, the shadows of what is to come. Jesus is the great cornerstone holding together the new, living temple of God. This living, growing temple is the place in which the Spirit of God dwells. This beautiful, living temple is made up of people everywhere, people who believe and trust in Jesus, not stones and mortar (1 Corinthians 3:10-23).

But I still have not answered the question about the Third Commandment. Does it or does it not apply to New Testament believers?

It does, but now, instead of observing the Sabbath in order to reflect upon God’s promise to restore his Day of Rest through the promised Messiah, we gather to celebrate Messiah’s coming. His name is Jesus, Fulfiller of all God’s promises. He has completed everything needed for our salvation. He is our guarantee of rest. We do not observe the Sabbath to gain the goodwill of God or earn something. Instead we remember the Sabbath out of gratitude and joy. To remember is to experience anew the past. This we do in our baptism as daily we remember we have died and risen again with Christ. To remember is to do what is now necessary, namely to move forward in His name today. To remember is to emphasize what is vital and important to all of us, namely that we are the Lord’s and in him we have eternal life.

So we remember the Sabbath by gathering weekly to be with him who alone gives rest, to be nurtured and nourished by him, to be fed at his Table, to rejoice in his mercy, to be with his people and to look forward eagerly to his return. In doing so, we are motivated by his mercy and grace. In faith and love, we seek to obey him, follow his leading and thus receive his eternal blessings (1 Corinthians 11:23-25).

We will continue our discussion next as we look at  the early church’s response to Christ and the Sabbath.

God Made The Seventh Day Holy

The Day of Rest
Biblical Teaching About Time
—An online book about rest and worship—
By Dr. Al Franzmeier

Chapter 3
The Seventh Day Is Holy
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This is the conclusion to the third chapter in which we began a study of the Biblical concept of time and rest. In my previous Blog we looked at the origin of the seven-day week. Let's finish that study.

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God made the seventh day holy
The seventh day brings God’s blessings to his faithful people.  It is a day set aside by him so that he may bless his them.  It is a holy day.  The Hebrew verb for “make holy” is Qadash.  It means to separate or set aside for God’s purposes, sanctify, hallow.  The seventh day is set aside for God’s purposes.  On this day, God wants his people to rest from their labor, to rejoice in his presence and to renew their relationships with one another.  This is God’s day.  It is holy.

Consider some examples of how people, as well as days, are set aside for God’s purposes.  The most obvious holy men in the Old Covenant were the priests:

“… priests are holy to their God.  Regard them as holy, because they offer up the food of your God.  Consider them holy, because I the Lord am holy – I who make you holy” (Leviticus 21:7-8)

Because they were holy, their bodies must be clean, their hair must not be shaved, their wives must be virgins at marriage and they themselves must have no defects.  Many other rules and regulations from God controlled their lives.  “Keep my commands and follow them,” said the Lord.  “I am the Lord.  Do not profane my holy name.  I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites.  I am the Lord, who makes you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God.  I am the Lord,” (Leviticus 22:31-33).

By word and by example the priests were constantly to remind God’s people that he is holy and that they too were to be holy.  In fact, God’s original intention was that all of his people would be priests.  At Mount Sinai he said to them: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.  Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). This promise, says the Apostle Peter, is being fulfilled by New Covenant believers in the spiritual house, the holy priesthood that offers spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  Of them the Apostle writes: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:4-10).


The Seventh Day
The Sabbath must always be on the final day of the week, the seventh day.  Seven is a sacred symbolical word of power throughout the Bible, because it is related to God and His day of rest.  The Hebrew word for seven is Sheba.  The priests, the high priest’s garments and the altar were all set aside for God’s purposes by ceremonies lasting seven days.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover celebrated the Exodus for seven days starting on day fifteen of the first month, Abib (March-April). During this feast, the first sheaf of the barley harvest was brought before the Lord.  The Feast of Weeks (Hag Shabu’ot), literally, the Feast of Seven-Periods followed the Passover.  This Feast began on the day after seven full weeks, the fiftieth day.  It was also called the Fifty Days (Hamishim Yom) Feast.  The Greek word for this feast is Pentecost (fifty).  It marked the early wheat harvest at about the sixth of Sivan, near the end of our own month of May.  After the beginning of the Christian era, Jews celebrated God’s giving of the Torah on this festival.

Christians remember Pentecost as the day when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the assembly of believers in Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul calls Christ the “first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). The tie in to the Old Covenant Feasts of Passover and Weeks thus becomes obvious.  The first sheaf of the barley harvest belonged to the Lord as a token that all the harvest was his and was dedicated to him by his people.  In turn, the resurrected Christ is the sheaf, the guarantee, of the resurrection of all God’s redeemed people.  When all things are completely fulfilled, God’s people will celebrate before him.  In that sense, the Feast of Weeks is a symbolical picture of the coming resurrection.

Menorah (Hebrew for “candlestick”, from the verb Nor – to give light) was the name for the sacred lamp in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple.  It had one main stem with six lateral stems, making seven.

Earlier the patriarch Abraham, with seven ewe lambs, sealed an oath before Abimelech that he had dug a certain well.  The place was called Beersheba, a word that can mean well (Beer) of seven (Sheba) or well of the oath (also Sheba, cf. Genesis 21:22-34). So too, Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, served his uncle Laban for seven years for Rachel and seven years for Leah (Genesis 29:18). These are examples of an ancient traditional respect for the number seven.

God rested from all his work of creating
On the seventh day of every week, God’s people must rest.  To rest is to desist from work.  God rested, but note that His is an eternal day of rest.  Unlike the other days, Day Seven has neither evening nor morning, neither beginning nor ending.  So this day became a sign of the cessation of tension, tribulation and trials toward which God is leading His people.  It gathered together all the promises and blessings of the other six. In that sense God spoke about “the land” promised as rest.

The first generation to leave Egypt did not trust in the Lord.  They rebelled and he was angry and solemnly swore: “Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers” (Deuteronomy 1:34-35; Numbers 14:30). Later, the land was called the “resting place.”

You are not to do as we do here today, everyone as he sees fit, since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 12:8, NIV).

“Resting place” is a noun derived from a verb meaning to rest or settle down (Nahat).  God put Adam into the Garden of Eden.  The verb for “put” (Yanach) is related to Nahat and implies security as well as rest. In the same way, after the flood, the Ark rested on Mount Ararat.  Noah (his name Nuach means ‘rest’), his family and all the animals in the Ark were now safe and secure.

The second generation of Israelites fleeing Egypt, born in the wilderness, did not duplicate their parents' mistrust.  They trusted the Lord and God gave them rest. 

The LORD gave them rest (Nuach - Noah) on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers (Joshua 21:44, NIV)

The Biblical history of God’s people is one of sin and rebellion. As a result they lost the promised blessing. God took away their security and their safety. Nehemiah described it succinctly.

But as soon as they were at rest (Nuach), they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them.  And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.  (Nehemiah 9:28, NIV)

In fifth century B.C. the Jewish leader Nehemiah, personal attendant to King Artaxerxes of Persia, with letters of recommendation from his ruler, rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.  Under his leadership, the returned settlers reaffirmed their commitment to the LORD’S covenant.  They promised to abstain from foreign marriages, observe the Sabbath again and support worship of the temple.  In so doing they believed that God would grant them rest, but rest in its fullness never came.  By the time of the birth of Jesus, the people were once again under the domination of a pagan, foreign government.

The curse spoken long ago upon the faithless Exodus generation remained: “How long will this wicked community grumble against me?  I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.  So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall – every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.  Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun” (Numbers 14:26-30).

The Jerusalem Temple liturgy reminds the worshipers of this.  God’s Sabbath-Rest is yet to come.  For now, believers must humbly return to the LORD with a prayer that one day he will mercifully grant them his rest. The promise of entering the LORD’S rest still stands, however. The message of the New Testament is that Jesus, the Son of God, is the great high priest who has gone through the heavens to offer himself as the one and final sacrifice for the sins of all people.  When he returns, he will bring salvation and final rest to all believers.

In that day, God’s promise given through the prophet Jeremiah will finally come to pass: “Do not fear, O Jacob my servant; do not be dismayed, O Israel.  I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their exile. Jacob will again have peace and security, and no one will make him afraid” (Jeremiah 46:27).

THE DAY OF REST - Prologue

The Day of Rest
Biblical Teaching About Time
—How It All Began—
By Dr. Al Franzmeier

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This is a manuscript I am publishing for the first time and, as promised earlier, I'm doing it online. Little by little, I'll be adding another chapter. At the end, I'll provide study guides for those who want to use the material for group study. Eventually I hope to develop a separate website tracking life before the multitudinous changes of the last half of century 20 and now century 21.

This current work is from a project I started when a pastor who was about to take a sabbatical—a term derived from the Biblical Sabbath, the seventh day, the day of rest—asked me to help his congregation explore the concept of rest and its meaning for modern life.


The Third Commandment in the numbering by Roman Catholics and Lutherans reads: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy (Exodus 20:8). Few among us have grasped the full implications of that commandment for our lives. Many remember from their religious instruction that Christians no longer observe Saturday, the seventh day, as their day of worship and rest. Followers of Jesus Christ long ago chose to celebrate his resurrection on Sunday, the first day of the week, in place of the ancient Sabbath, the seventh day.

The Lutheran Small Catechism says precious little about this commandment other than to instruct believers to hold the preaching of God’s Word sacred and hear it gladly. That’s it. Having correctly honored the Christ by replacing the seventh day with the first as the primary day of worship, we have long neglected the Bible’s other teachings about the Sabbath. This is regrettable since the Bible has much to teach us twenty-first century Christians about rest, how to use our time, how to relax, how to spend time with our families, set priorities in our lives and scores of other related topics.

 Managing time is one of the biggest problems we face today. Despite all our telephones, computers, fast cars, jets and other timesaving devices, things are speeding up. Everything is going faster and everyone is in a hurry to get more done. We are sorely pressed for time. We’re like Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit that jumped down a hole in front of her.  He was constantly checking his watch and saying, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!”

Both Alice and the rabbit ended up in Wonderland. In a sense, so have we. Our world is certainly filled with wonder, but we do not have time to stop long enough to really look in awe and wonder at what is before us. Caught up in some big race, often running in circles, we seldom know where we’re going or what the hurrying is about.

When my children were younger and living at home, my wife constantly reminded me that I too was so wrapped up in the busy-ness of the church that I had little time for my own family. She can provide you with twenty or thirty examples of when I was not there for important family events. As a devoted pastor, everyone else’s needs took priority. I was too busy taking care of the families of our congregations—and neglecting my own.

My pastor-friend knew what I was talking about, as did his church’s leaders. So when I presented my proposal they accepted it and asked me to provide a course of study  that would help them reflect upon twenty-first century life in light of Biblical teaching about the Sabbath. The chapters to follow are the product of those lectures.

I pray my work will help us all find new and creative ways to use the precious gift of time granted to us, based upon the teachings of Holy Scripture. Under the blessing of the Holy Spirit we will grow in our faith and in our sanctified lives. Watch for the first chapter to be posted soon.

Conflict Among Brothers

It's one thing to have to deal with conflict, but it is quite another to have to deal with slander and betrayal by one you thought was a close friend. And the pain grows when this one is not only a close friend, but a believer with whom you work and pray with in the church. In those times we all begin to feel like David when he prayed, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest" (Psalm 55:6).

Conflict among and between friends in the church is a very bitter pill to swallow. It seems but natural in those times to want out, even to long for death and the joys of heaven. Short of that, I've prayed for the LORD to take me to another town, among another people. That, however, only increases the pain, for then I would have to deal with the loss and support of other dear and close friends.

There once was a time in my life when this prayer for wings like a dove filled my heart. I did not want to abandon my wife and children. I did not want to leave my friends who were so precious to me, but I wanted out, I wanted to escape somehow. I wanted rest. I wanted to go home at night and not have to discuss the conflicts with my wife or burden my children with the anger and disappointment that never left me. I wanted to smile and not have to pretend. I wanted to laugh and really feel happy. But it was not to be. The wings of a dove were not mine to have.

What does one do in times such as this? How does one survive? The prayer of Jesus sustains us all in such times. He anticipated that this very thing would happen to him when his dear and close friend Judas would betray him. Once, when many disciples rejected him, Jesus said, "Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil" (John 6:70-71). Later, while the disciples were sharing the Passover on the night before His crucifixion, Jesus said to Judas, "What you are going to do, do quickly" (John 13:27).

As always, Jesus knows and understands what we must at times endure. He knows in His heart the pain of being slandered and betrayed by close friends. He knows the longing for the wings like a dove and the passionate desire for rest. Yet it is through us that He brings His Word and shares forgiveness and compassion.

So our High Priest prays, "I am no longer in the world, but they are, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. . . I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one" (John 17:11-15).

If you are dealing with such matters or ever have to, take Jesus' prayer to heart. His prayers are ever heard by the holy Father. And while you remain in this world and find you must continue in the vocation and calling assigned to you, the same Father will give you the inner peace and strength to endure the conflict and continue. Here again are the words of David.

"Cast your burden on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved" (Psalm 55:22).

Food for the Journey

I've been reflecting much these days upon the life and work of Moses, especially his reluctance at being drawn back into public life as a leader of God's people. Here's what the Scriptures tell us:

Moses fled Egypt after he had grown up, because he had killed an Egyptian in defense of one of the Israelites. Afraid of retaliation by the Egyptians, he ended up living with the Midianites. These nomadic people lived in the wilderness areas to the east of Egypt. They seem not to have had any boundaries. There Moses spent many years in apparent peace as a shepherd (Exodus 1-2). I can only assume that he thought he would live and die in that pursuit, but it was not to be. At about the age of eighty years, he was called out of his nomadic life and into the very public work of leading the children of Israel out of slavery and on to the land long ago promised to Abraham and his descendants.

The work of leading Israel lasted for the next forty years. Moses finally died at the age of 120, though, as Exodus says, "his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone." That suggests that Moses was 80 when he assumed the momentous task of leader. And that fact leads back to why I have been reflecting much upon Moses' life.

This past year I marked 75 years on my journey to what the Bible calls the land of rest, symbolized by the weekly day of rest, the Sabbath, and the promised land. Some eight years ago I stepped aside from full time pastoral ministry to make room for a younger man. At that time I felt it was God's will and plan. Now, with some caution, I have begun to serve a growing congregation of God's people as counselor and advisor, much like Jethro was to Moses. Some of the leaders of this congregation are asking for my greater involvement, perhaps as one of their pastor-shepherds, until they are led to call another man who will serve them in a full time capacity.

I find myself pulled in two directions by that discussion. On the one hand, I enjoy the freedom of the life Sylvia and I have led these past eight years. I've been my own boss, so to speak, making decisions about how to spend my days without the burden of caring for a flock of God's people. And yet, I have always loved the work of the pastoral ministry. To many I've indicated that I'm among the richest men on earth, primarily because of the hundreds of rich and rewarding relationships I've been privileged to develop.

So what to do? As always, I, like you, must go where the Lord leads. He will provide for the journey. He made that promise to those of his disciples sent out ahead of Him. The same applies to us, regardless of the work to which we are called. So I await His leading, as must we all.