‘Shabbat’ is the Hebrew word behind Sabbath. It literally means, "rest" or "cessation".
Sunday’s message from Pastor Walt is all about how Jesus came to not to follow the rules of religion or men, but to restore broken sinners. The context is the Pharisee’s argument with Jesus about the Sabbath day in Mark 2.
Walt briefly encouraged us to take a day of rest each week, to disconnect and refocus.
And yesterday our Spring picnic was a great time of doing just that, connecting relationally.
Below are Pastor Walt’s notes. If you would like to listen to the sermon you can click here or subscribe to our podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. Search Trinity Grace Church Athens.
Or you can watch the entire service on our YouTube page here.
MAIN POINT: No—Jesus did not come to follow the rules of religion but to rescue & restore broken sinners.
1. The Accusation of the Pharisees.
“[This form of] legalism insists on conformity to manmade religious rules and requirements, which are often unspoken but are nevertheless very real. To use a more common expression, it requires conformity to the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of our particular Christian circle.” Jerry Bridges
“[There are] a class of people who have come to be known as “controllers.” These are people who are not willing to let you live your life before God as you believe He is leading you. They have all the issues buttoned down and have cast-iron opinions about all of them. These people only know black and white. There are no gray areas to them. They insist you live your Christian life according to their rules and their opinions. If you insist on being free to live as God wants you to live, they will try to intimidate you and manipulate you one way or another. Their primary weapons are “guilt trips,” rejection, or gossip. These people must be resisted.” Jerry Bridges
“Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.” Isaiah 29:13
2. The Defense of Jesus.
I do not love the Sabbath
The soapsuds and the starch
The troops of solemn people
Who to salvation march.
—Robert Graves
“So the church should of course urge and teach faithful sabbath keeping. But it should not be done positively. First, leave room for rest. The programs of the church should not fill every little nook and cranny of the day. And the worship should be the kind of worship the saints look forward to all week. For the remainder of the day, the teaching should emphasize that this is a day for joy, gladness, hot food, good wine, fellowship with friends, singing psalms, reading books, and reciting poetry. In the time left over, arrange the couch so it is near a window in the middle of your loveliest sun puddle. And take a nap.” Douglas Wilson
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.” C.S. Lewis
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. Matthew 11:28-29
3. The Drama with the Man with a Withered Hand.
“There on the cross is displayed the glory, the wisdom, the righteousness, the love, the justice, and the power of God (1 Cor 1:18-31). And none of it looks anything like what you’d expect. Would you ever have thought a man dying on a cross was the definition of love? Yet this is how we know what love is (1 Jn 3:16). Would you ever have you looked at the miscarriage of justice that was his trial and imagined that there, above all, is displayed the perfect justice of God? Yet God did it to demonstrate his justice (Rom 3:26). Would you ever have dreamed that the Almighty would make the definitive display of his power there, nailed to a cross between common criminals? There seems to be nothing powerful about that man in the throes of death. Yet, hanging there, he is crushing the head of the Serpent, tying up the strong man, driving out the prince of this world, destroying death, putting the spiritual powers to open shame and triumphing over them. On the cross we see true, pure power, used as it should be: to bless.” Michael Reeves