A Day of Rest

[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 27th of August, 2017.  Look for the video on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

One of the things my pastor brothers and I always mention when the subject of sermons comes up is “just preach Jesus”.  Jesus Himself commands us to go into the world making disciples and teaching the Gospel to all peoples.  Well, the Gospel is the Good News, and salvation through Christ Jesus is that Good News.  So preaching Jesus is one way to carry out His commission to us.

This morning we have a lot going on and a meal will be ready for us soon, so I thought what better way is there to preach Jesus than to let Him do most of the talking.  And I’d like to begin with one of the many lessons He provided us.  This one centers around yet another attempt by the Pharisees to catch Jesus breaking the Law of Moses, the commands of God.  Listen and follow along as I read the Gospel account of the Apostle Mark from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible, beginning in chapter 2 verse 23 and going through chapter 3 verse 8…

2:23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”

27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

3:1 And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” 4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

7 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.

--Mark 2:23-3:8 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, You gave Your Son great authority on earth to work Your plan for mankind, yet those in positions of influence refused to accept Jesus’ authority or His holy birthright.  Speak to us now through Your Holy Spirit directly into our hearts, that we might receive and understand what the Pharisees would not.  Imprint Your message on our hearts that we, like Jesus, might better work Your will in our lives.  In the blessed name of Jesus we pray.   Amen.


In ancient Athens, a man once noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys.  The man laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.

Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground.  Then he said to the critical man, "Now, answer this riddle, if you can.  Tell us what the unstrung bows implies."

The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what point Aesop was trying to make.  Aesop explained, "If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you need it."


This crazy world we live in delights in heaping loads of stress onto our backs.  Even those of us fortunate enough to be retired and no longer “working” easily get stressed out.  There is just so much going on, so many demands of our time and efforts, we simply can’t avoid stress.

We become like Aesop’s bow before he removed the string: overly taut with the tension of stress.  The more stress we endure, the tighter that string pulls.  Until finally, we break.

Like everything else in this life, God has an answer for this stress, for removing the string from the bow.  He gave us that answer right here in our Bible, our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  Rest.  Take a day each week and do nothing but rest.  In the Book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 8 through 11, Moses recorded God’s words to His people when He commanded…

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

--Exodus 20:8-11 (NKJV)

Now the Pharisees questioned Jesus about this, as we read in Mark’s Gospel account a few moments ago.  They thought that the Disciples plucking grain to eat as they walked along the road on the Sabbath to be doing work and breaking the Law of Moses.  And then they questioned if healing the man with a crippled hand wasn’t breaking the Law too.  In turn, Jesus asked His accusers if it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or to do evil, to save a life or to kill, and I think we’d all agree it should be lawful to do good on the Sabbath, especially if it would save a life.

But the clincher is Jesus’ response that mankind was not made for the benefit of the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath was given for the benefit of mankind!  The Sabbath doesn’t need us – we need the Sabbath!  We need that day of rest, that chance to unwind a bit, the opportunity to loosen the bowstring before the bow snaps, before we break.

Jesus clearly recognized this.  There was a time when He sent out His twelve original disciples, after giving them the power to heal and cast out unclean spirits, sending them to all the towns and villages throughout the region.  The Apostle Mark describes this in chapter 6 of his Gospel account, verses 7 through 13 and 30 through 32…

7 And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. 8 He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff — no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts — 9 but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics.

10 Also He said to them, “In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place. 11 And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

12 So they went out and preached that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.

30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 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 to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.

--Mark 6:7-13; 30-32 (NKJV)

When everyone got back, Jesus told them to go off for a while, get by themselves, and rest.  Rest, relax, unwind, loosen the bowstring.


You may be wondering why I am encouraging us to take a day of rest right as school is about to begin.  Well, that in itself is a very good reason for anyone involved with school in any way.  School can be a very stressful environment.  If we allow ourselves to become too tight from all the stress, we may snap at any little provocation.  We need to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy by doing as God commanded us to do and rest!

The other reason I am prescribing rest is because Labor Day is approaching.  Labor Day was originally set aside to honor the American worker and his contribution to our way of life, to allow him time off to rest and spend with family.  So take this time to rest!  I will be doing just that – resting, relaxing, unwinding.  And You should, too.


Everything God and Jesus command us to do is ultimately for our own good.  The command to rest should be the most easily seen of these, yet it is too often ignored, as are so many others of God’s commands.

Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and He commands us to rest!  Honor and obey that command.  Enjoy a day of rest.  In the blessed name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, everything You have ever commanded us has always been for our own good because You love us so much.  You know how fragile we are, and You know how easily we can snap and break when the stresses of life build up too heavily on us.  So You command us to rest, to honor the Sabbath day You gave us by resting.  All things need a time of rest, even the earth, so You showed us by Your own example in creating the universe, by resting on the seventh day.  Thank You, Father, for giving us the time and opportunity to rest.  Please help us put aside the busyness of our life long enough to take advantage of Your gift and to rest.

Please hear us now, Father, as we silently speak to You straight from our hearts, thanking You for Your grace and mercy, repenting of our disobedience and sin, and seeking Your forgiveness…

Lord Jesus, Your showed by Your own actions with Your closest followers the importance of resting.  You made sure we could understand that it is still OK to do good on the day of rest, but that we need to take that time and unwind.  Jesus, we recognize You as indeed being the Lord of the Sabbath and accept Your authority over that day and all that occurs during it.  Help us, please, to also accept and obey Your command to go off for a while and rest.  Help us to make the time to relax.  Help us keep ourselves from breaking under the pressure that life heaps upon us.

This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith.  Amen.