WINTER WARMERS: REST(TALK 2/3: REST+WORK)

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

CONNECT: How can you remind yourself of God’s rest this week?

WARM-UP

1. Does our culture help or hinder us to have lives that include a regular rhythm of rest? 2. What do you find most challenging about having a regular pattern of rest? How can we address it?

READ Luke 6:1-2

3. What were Jesus and the disciples doing that was so offensive to the Pharisees? 4. Whilst the Pharisees may have been legalistic in their approach, how were they taking the idea of

Sabbath much more seriously than we sometimes do?

READ Exodus 20:8-11

5. What are the features of this command that most stand out for you? Do you approach regular rest as more of command or a ‘suggestion’?

6. How is this command based upon the order of creation? What is significant for us about God resting? 7. What do you think is at the heart of disobeying the command to rest? How does rest increase our trust

in God instead of ourselves?

READ Luke 6:3-5 8. Why does Jesus make reference to the incident of David in the Temple? What does it mean for Jesus to

be the Lord of the Sabbath? 9. If Jesus is the ultimate person and place in whom we find rest, how should that be reflected in our lives? 10.What is your weekly day of rest and what is your pattern of rest? What most helps or hinders you in

having a regular rhythm of rest? How do you think you can develop your pattern of rest? 11. If you’re in a particularly busy season of life, how can you ensure that this doesn’t become a way of life? 12.How is serving other people and connecting with other people part of your regular rhythm of rest? How

does it help you rest? 13.How does growing in our satisfaction of Jesus’ finished work on the cross help us to rest even when we

may not be satisfied with what we have done? What can you remind you of this daily?

APPLY: What is your regular pattern of rest? How can it reflect God’s desire for rest more?

PRAY: Gracious God, thank you so much for the amazing gift of rest. Please help us to take it seriously, that we might delight in setting it as a priority, that we might make you the focus of its purpose, and that our pattern of rest will honour you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU "

WINTER WARMERS: REST(TALK 2/3: REST + WORK)

GOING DEEPER RESOURCES On Your Front Line this Week

• Has Australia lost God and would it matter if we did? This week could you invite a friend, neighbour, colleague or family member along to our Public Lecture on Friday 2 August, 7PM? Register here: stbarts.com.au/roryshiner

For Families

• VIDEO: “Jesus Heals a Man on the Sabbath”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuk5iSECnH8

Audio and Video

• AUDIO: “Work and Rest” by David Bisgrove: https://gospelinlife.com/downloads/work-and-rest-3/

• AUDIO: “Work and Rest” by Tim Keller: https://gospelinlife.com/downloads/work-and-rest-5314/

Other Helpful Resources

• “Created to Rest: The Art of Sabbath” https://www.licc.org.uk/resources/the-art-of-sabbath-1/

• “Making the Most of Rest” from St Helen’s Bishopsgate resources: https://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/article/178/

• “The Power of Deep Rest” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-power-of-deep-rest/

• “How to Embrace Rest When Work Never Ends”https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-to-embrace-rest-when-work-never-ends/

• “Bring Back the Sabbath” by Judith Shulevtiz via the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/magazine/bring-back-the-sabbath.html

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU "

TALK 2/3 (REST SERIES): 07/07/19 “REST+Work”

by the Rev’d Adam Lowe

Bible Passage: Luke 6:11 & Exodus 20:1-11

Rest and work are both great gifts from God,yet our relationship between the two is pretty out of whack. • One approach is to despise rest and idolise work:

saying that rest is just for the weak, it’s a luxury, it’s optional, sleeping is just to enable you to work more, that it’s good to love the hustle, and what matters is what you get done!

• The opposite approach is to despise work and idolise rest: saying that I live for the weekend, the goal is to avoid work, that work is always bad, all the time, and you only work in order that you might rest.

• Now some people’s solution is to simply say: work hard and play hard,but to me, that just sounds kind of sounds like work dressed-up as play! //

• There’s so much meaning tied up in what we do, yet we also know that our relationship with work is kind of broken:we yearn for rest, struggle to find it, and when we do, we can feel guilty for taking it.

As one author put it, “Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day. (Tim Kreider, NY Times)

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But when we come to a biblical understanding of work and rest, we see: that they’re both gifts, that despite being marred by our brokenness, together form a rhythm of life, that only find their fullness with God at the centre of both. • It’s like breathing.

Rest is like taking deep breath in;Work is like taking a deep breath out.It’s no good saying you’d like one and not the other, Or that you have time for breathing out, but not breathing in. We need both.

• It doesn’t matter if you’re studying, working, looking for work, or retired, we’re all involved in work and can all struggle to find a deep rest.

So three things…

• The PRIORITY of Rest;The PURPOSE of Rest; and The PATTERN of Rest.

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#1 The PRIORITY of Rest: Commanded and Made \\ LUKE 6:1-2

So first, the PRIORITY of Rest. Rest is a priority for two reasons: • Because that it what God has COMMANDED: and

Because that is how God has MADE US.

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” (vv.1-2)

• This of course isn’t the only time Jesus got in trouble for doing things on the Sabbath.A little later on, the Pharisees challenge Jesus for healing someone on the day of rest.

• And as you hear that, you might think it sounds absolutely absurd: they’re hungry, they’re just having something small to eat!

• But what’s important to understand is that in response to the fourth commandment, to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, in order to try and put that into practice, they had created 39 different categories of regulations to specify prohibited work activities.

• I wonder what 39 categories of regulations might help you actually have a day of rest! // • These regulations weren’t set by God, but in response to God’s command.

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• For some, it would have been a badge of honour, of righteousness,for others, it would have been a genuine attempt to live out God’s command.

• But regardless of where they’re coming from,as Jesus’ disciples pick the grain and rub it together, they’re actually managing to violate not just one regulation, but two!By picking the grain, they are REAPING,By rubbing it together, they are THRESHING. It was unthinkable! //

• It’s easy for us to think of the Pharisees, just relax guys,It’s easy for us to think, they’re so misguided and legalistic, but we ought to have the humility to consider for a moment that perhaps at least part of the reason why they weren’t easy and breezy with such matters,is because they took God’s command far more seriously than we sometimes do.

• Exodus 20, verses 8-11:

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. (vv.8-10)

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• Keeping the Sabbath is not some optional advice, or icing on the cake, it’s a command! It’s on the same list as “do not murder”,yet out of all the ten commandments, it’s detailed more than any other, probably because the people of Israel has such difficulty keeping it.

• And we shouldn’t be particularly surprised by that, because whilst both work and rest are good, God only had to command us to do one of them!

• It’s revealing of a fundamental human problem since the fall: that we’re so prone to overworking, not because we are innately industriousness, but because we can so often be furiously trying to earn our worth, or earn enough to collect things that give us worth. So often, it’s not that work is the problem, but our relationship with work.

• That’s why we can so often find it hard to rest, to disconnect. That resting doesn’t come naturally to most people; that we have to try and rest.

• Yet note, that the reason why God commands us to rest, is because that is the shape of life that he has modelled and made us for.

• Remember the Sabbath, why? Verse 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. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

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See, we can resist God’s command to rest, but in doing so, we’re not only rebelling against the one who made us, but we’re rebelling against the how we are made.

• In the account of creation in Genesis, after each day when God looks upon his creation, his handiwork, he looks at it and says, “it is good”.

• I wonder if you know that feeling, probably not quite at the level of creating the stars,but a deep sense of satisfaction when you look upon some work that you’ve done.

• Yet when it comes to the end of the sixth day, God doesn’t press on, but he rests. Not because he was exhausted, but because he delights in what he has created, not only saying that is was good, but looking upon the whole, and saying it is very good!

• So remarkable, that the pattern for God, to rest one day out of seven, not just because of physical exhaustion, out of desperate need,becomes the very pattern for us, because we’re made in his image.

• And to resist or reject the priority of rest, to think it doesn’t apply to us, is to not only reject the authority of God who has commanded it of us, but to also reject the very nature and limitations of how we are made.

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#2 The PURPOSE of Rest: Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath \\ LUKE 6:3-5

But whilst at some level the Pharisees may have understood the priority of rest, as they saw what Jesus was doing, they had failed to comprehend its true purpose.

Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (Luke 6:3-5)

It’s quite amazing, that in the face of the accusation of doing what is unlawful,Jesus doesn’t appeal to Genesis, or even to the command in Exodus 20, but refers to a peculiar incident right back in 1 Samuel. • It was the practice that 12 loaves of bread, representing the 12 tribes of Israel,

would be placed on the table in the Temple for a period of time, after which it was to be consumed by the priests.

• Yet on one occasion, David and his crew, who were on the run and famished, went into the Temple and consumed that very bread that was set apart.

• That might seem bit obscure… But not only is Jesus implying that the need was more important than ceremonial regulation. You couldn’t use God’s laws to avoid doing good.

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• But that just as David was the rightful king and had the authority to do what he did, that Jesus has the authority to overrule the ways of the Pharisees, because he is the true king with the ultimately authority to interpret the Sabbath, because he was the very one who created it in the first place! He’s the Lord of it!

• And that means if you want to truly understand the purpose of Sabbath, the way is not through the Pharisees’ system of rules and regulations, but by coming to the one who is Lord of it!

• The Lord who made it, The Lord who blessed it, The Lord who made it holy,The Lord who said it was set it apart for him!

• Jesus is saying, that Lord is me! Do you get how amazing this is?! • That the way we find the rest that we long for is not in a place or a practice,

but in the person who defines its purpose: In Jesus. By making him the focus. • You can try all of the relaxation techniques in the world,

but rest devoid of Jesus will not be true rest at all.

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• That the place where we get true rest, and not just the absence of work,the rest that we so desperately need because that’s how we’ve been made, that’s part of what we’re set apart to do and be, is by going to the one who is Lord of it, made by him and for him.

• The one who said, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest!” (Matthew 11:28)

• What type of rest? • Rest from trying to prove ourselves, or get ahead, or get enough.

Rest from thinking that it’s all up to us. Rest that expresses our trust in what he has done, not what we have done, Rest that reminds us that we are no longer slaves to sin, Rest that prevent us from becoming enslaved to work!Rest that punctuates the flow of the week,not when we’re ready, not when we’re satisfied with what we’ve completed, but to remind us of what Jesus has completed.

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#3 The PATTERN of Rest \\ THREE SUGGESTIONS

And in order to cement rest as a priority, in order to focus on Jesus as the purpose, we need a PATTERN of Rest in our lives. There’s no one place you can go to in the Bible to tell us what to do. But I think there are at least three elements to rest that are evident and needed. First, a pattern of rest that reflects the priority and purpose of God, involves a whole day, every week, one out of seven, not doing what you normally do. • In the first century, one philosopher thought that such an idea was so absurd,

that it was a way for people to waste, “almost a seventh of their life in inactivity”. • But it’s not absurd - it’s a wonderful pattern established from creation itself. • That day doesn’t have to be a Sunday - today is not my rest day!

For some people it’s impossible to have the same day each week, which means that it will take some planning and discipline.

• But do whatever it takes, because one thing I’m sure of, is that we don’t typically drift into regular rest!

• I know for some here that there are seasons in life in which that is almost impossible.

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• I just want to encourage you, to punctuate a rhythm of rest now, before a season of life becomes a way of life.

• For some people, that will mean saying no to promotions, or no to additional opportunities; For others it will mean simply getting less done, or achieving less than you might like to, but it will be a wonderful reminder, every week, that it’s not all up to us, that we are all just mortal, and that we do actually need God; It will be a distinctive example amidst a world that is so weary and burnt out.

Second, our day of rest should point us to God. • We read, all the way back in Exodus,

that the direction to which we orientate our Sabbath, is to God. • That doesn’t mean that we don’t take time out, and enjoy doing things that we love,

but it does mean fundamentally that all that we do should be directed to God, and conversely means that devoid of God, it won’t be deep rest.

• If that involves inactivity: that will clear some space to actually think about God. If that involves going outside: that will help us to thank God for his handiwork. If that involves doing something creative: that will point us to our Creator.

• The point is that it should all help us to reflect on God’s character, to reflect on what he has done, and also anticipate our future with him!

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• I know for me, the two things that I most love doing on my regular day off, are to go for an early ride and see the absolute beauty of the sun rising, andand to share an undistracted meal with my family and delight how God has formed us!

So ONE DAY, TO GOD, and finally COMMUNITY.

• As we can read in Acts, in the earliest accounts of the Christian church, their Sabbath was always characterised by joining with their brothers and sisters in Christ.

• They worshipped together, they broke bread together, they attended to one another’s needs. • Sometimes it can be so tempting, when life is really busy, to skip community in the

name of rest, to withdraw from people - but I want to encourage you not to do that. • Of course we need time to ourselves, some people will need that more than others,

but don’t use Sabbath as a reason to withdraw from worshipping life. • Remember, that Sabbath is meant to point us to God, to focus on God,

thus would could be more appropriate and life-giving than worshipping together as a body. • Gathering and anticipating that future day of forever rest,

Expressing our dependence on God and not what we can achieve, Being accountable with those around us that we are taking rest seriously. //

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You might be here today and just think, my life is crazy, I want to rest, and I will rest, but I just can’t do that now. • I hear you, I understand, I’m working on it too. • But I just want to encourage you, that:

we are released to rest not when we’re satisfied, not when we think the job is done, but in the great knowledge that when Jesus breathed his last IT WAS FINISHED.

• Can you see how liberating that is? That when we get our true meaning from Jesus, we can rest not when we’re satisfied with what we have achieved, but when we are satisfied in what Jesus has achieved.

• That our ultimate importance and worth won’t come from what we do, but that our ultimate importance and worth will come from what he has done.

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