Sabbath Pearl: Sabbath Rest

Sabbath Rest

1 – Jesus Christ ( Yeshua ) Is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Matt.12:6-8: 6I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.

NIV 7If you had known what these word mean, ‘I desire

mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned

the innocent. 8For the Son of Man is Lord of the

Sabbath.

Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. He came to die as a ransom to set us free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Man-made sanctuary is for sacrifice of sins ceremony- it is under law- it is just a shadow of the reality/new to come.

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of the Israel after that time,”

declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their

hearts. I will be their God, and their will be my people. Jer. 31:33 NIV

Jesus Christ, the power and wisdom of God, is the new covenant, who is going to live in our heart and renew our mind with the truth.

But when the time had fully come, God sent the Spirit of his Son into

our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” Gal. 4:4 NIV

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and

your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil.4:7

After Jesus Christ has sacrificed himself on the cross for our sins, the old is gone, and the new is here. And those who are called will be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, through receiving Jesus Christ to be Lord over their lives. And what really counts is a new creation, as we are.

For the law of God has been changed to led by Love Himself, and the just shall live by faith. All laws shall be fulfilled through the acts of love.

And so we are no more keeping the Sabbath (that is law), but we will be entering into the Sabbath through faith in Christ (the New Covenant).

16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with

regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

17These are a shadow of things that were to come; the reality, however, is

found in Christ. Col. 2:16 NIV

5It is not to angels that he has subject the world to come, about which

we are speaking. 6but there is a place where someone has testifield:

“What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man

that you care for him? 7you made him a little lower than

the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor 8and

put everything under his feet.”

In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to

him. Heb. 2:5-8 NIV

2 – Live in the spirit by faith through Christ to enter that

‘rest’.

That ‘rest’ is referring to ‘spiritual rest’, not ‘physical rest’.

We don’t work/perform to enter this ‘rest’. For the Son of God has said:

‘Without me you can do nothing’. John 15;1-8

Only when we are led by the Spirit of God, shall we be able to fulfill the law of Christ, and the law of Christ is grounded with pure love. Jesus said: I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. John 10:9

Thessalonians1:3: We continually remember before our God and Father your

NIV work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and

your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our heavenly father wants us to cease from doing good work to fulfill the law by our own effort, but comes to the Son to receive grace to help us by surrendering our live to him. No one is able to overcome evil while walking in the flesh. Read Gal.5:16-26

Because God sent the Spirit of His Son to live in our heart and to renew our mind by His Living Word, whom Jesus Christ is the Word of God.

read John 1:1-18.

We need to live in the Spirit to overcome the gratification of the sinful nature of the flesh.

Gal. 2:20: I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live;

KJV yet not I, but Christ live in me: and the life

which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith

of the Son of God, who love me, and gave

himself for me.

3 – We need to cease from want. Cease from keeping

earthly treasure, but absolutely trust in God only

Heb.3:7-11: 7Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost said, To day if ye will hear

KJV his voice. 8Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,

in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my

works forty years.

10Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said,

They do always err in their heart; and they have not

know my ways.

11So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter my rest.)

In the day of our forefather (Israelites) in the desert, they saw the hands of God at work (performing miracles to meet their needs), many times on their behalf, yet they have failed to trust God.

God said that they don’t know His ways, because of unbelief.

(Jesus Christ is the Author and perfecter of our faith- to trust God just as He is)

To enter into God’s rest, that means we need to cease from worry, fear, greed, wants etc… All this might cause us to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Rather, we come to the river of life- Jesus Christ, who can break every bondages and set us free so as to quench our thirst from want/lust, but make God to be our provider who is able to meet all our needs.

King Solomon said in Eccl.2:9,11 –

9I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

in all this my wisdom stayed with me.

11yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I

had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing

after the wind: nothing was gained under the sun.

All that king Solomon had achieved, he gained it through grief and strife.

Same with the mankind of today, they rather want to satisfy their fleshly appetite with: big house, nice car, movies, club, alcohol, high position, more love affair and have enough money in the bank to make them feel secure, etc, instead of living for God so that the Light of Christ may shine on them.

We need to flee from all this meaningless labor and false security.

Eccl.2:22-23,5:16-17

When God gave His Son as a gift for us, we receive grace to enter His rest and we give our life to follow Jesus Christ in order to learn righteousness, humility and the love of Christ, but not to live our own life to spend it on:

(1) To do/perform good work to become righteous or trying hard to fulfill the law

(2) Toiling to have more earthly possession to satisfy our fleshly desire or for

security

When God rested, after He finished all His creation, it is because He sees the day His sons and daughters are bought forth from the earth. He also sees His Son died on the cross at the Calvary to accomplish His purpose when Jesus said, ‘It is finished’ on the cross.

26The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations,

but is now disclosed to the saints, 27To them God has chosen to

make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery,

which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Col. 1:26-27

4For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and

blameless in His sight, in love 5He predestined us to be adopted as his

sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will – 6to

the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One

He love. Eph. 1:4-6

Do you get it all..?

Can you imagine..what is going on..? From eternity God already has this plan in mind.

To be able to overcome our critical attitude and wrong perception toward our life on earth, but to trust God to lead our life day to day, to transform us to be the person that He wants us to be- you are blessed!!

May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and

through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless

at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who call you is

faithful and he will do it. The grace of Lord Jesus Christ be

with you. Amen! 1Thes.5:23,24,28