Word of Salvation – Vol. 29 No. 46 – December 1984
Relax!
Sermon by Rev. A. I. De Graaf, v.d.m. on Hebrews 4:9
Scripture lessons: Isaiah 35 and Hebrews 4
Suggested hymns: 191: 1,2; 387;
BoW 806:1,2,3,4; 811:1,2,3,4; and 811:5; or P.H.378
Brothers and sisters in Christ,
The one year goes, the other comes, but the old world in which we live very much remains the same. There is nothing much NEW about it. Will we ever have peace in this world? The same old tensions, the same old threats and anxieties. Among the nations; among the social classes and the racial groups? And will there be an economic future, and work, for us and for our children? And will the church, also our own church, be faithful in doing its work, proclaiming the gospel, being built up in love? Will we continue together as a community of joy in the Lord?
Yes, problems and tensions galore, within and without. But today it is Sunday; one of the first Sundays of the year, a Day of Rest, the New Testament Sabbath.
Let us think about the Sabbath; and hear the gospel about it. The Hebrew word “Shabbath”, we could say, means RELAX!
Relax! Let that tense, clenched fist become an open hand, open to heaven, open to God, the Giver of life!
Because, thanks to the completed work of Him Who came to us… Who died on the cross and arose from the dead, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God!
* * * * *
RELAX! God says to you today.
Because you are…
(1) RELEASED, (2) RELATED, (3) RELYING and (4) RELAYING!
(1) RELAX, because you’re RELEASED!
Especially when you read the law as formulated in Deuteronomy 5, where the motive is not so much that GOD took a rest after having created the world and so YOU can afford to take a rest too; but the motive is that God set you free and so you should not be slaves, neither should you be slave-drivers to the shop keepers or petrol station attendants or servants at home or even animals in the field. Relax!
God is the giver of freedom!
And Jesus Christ made that fully true. He did the work; and finished it! So, He says, now you don’t have your day of rest AT THE END OF THE WEEK (as if you still must earn your rest) but He says: do something silly in the eyes of the world: REST first and then work!
Jesus won the victory. Whoever goes into God’s rest can only do so because he has faith in that victory because he trusts in it and relies on it.
Those Israelites who perished in the desert did not fail to make it because they didn’t work hard enough, neither was it because they had no courage. Remember they were willing to go and tackle these Canaanites on their own! No, what cost them their entry into Canaan is that they did not put their trust in God! The God Who had proved Himself to them over and over again, Who had led them out of Egypt and fed them with manna, meat and water, who had made them win their battle against the Amalekites by the power of prayer as Moses sat and lifted his staff to heaven; the God who had shown them He cared for them and could do anything for them!
But they did not believe; they did not trust Him, and so they could not relax.
They did not believe; not trust in God, and so they did not get in.
Tragic indeed!
Today, says our text, it works in the same way still. You can go into a new year as relaxed, joyful Christians with not a care in the world, if only you put your complete trust in God. Follow Him who knows the way in the wilderness. All you have to do is: follow.
God, by giving His Son to take away the barrier of your guilt, has set you free. All you need to do for that is take that seriously and trust in the Lord Who died for you, then rose again, and now sits on the very throne of the Universe. Speaking about Big Brother! HE, Jesus, is our Big Brother: the One Who sits on the throne is human like you and I, yet the Son of God in power and glory. Do you know Him as the one who gave YOU release of all your sins? Have you confessed before Him your sinfulness and your disobedience and spoken to Him as YOUR Lord and YOUR God in whom YOU trust? Then every year will be a year in which you know that nothing really bad can happen: because Satan has been defeated and his claims have been removed from you; be it sickness or death; be it world events or just upheavals in your family: there’s nothing you need to face alone: nothing you need to go through without the Lord Who sits on the throne and made you His. As Paul said in that storm when all his fellow-sailors and passengers had lost their cool, including the tough Roman soldiers who were on board: “Don’t be afraid: the Lord whose I am, and whom also I serve, is looking after us all.”
Because he was released from the worst enemy any man could have – the anger of God – nothing could really scare Paul anymore! He was free. He was relaxed! When your conscience is free before God, you really are free! This freedom can be yours today! You have to ask Jesus for it, but He paid the price to be able to give it. When you’re so released, man, can you relax and find peace?
Secondly…
(2) RELAX, because you’re RELATED.
For whom does the text say that this Sabbath rest remains?
FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
When you by faith belong to Jesus, He is your “Big Brother”; and that makes GOD Your Father, your Dad. So we do not stand alone in the world.
We are not just in the hands of people with computers, of government agencies, or the economy, or whatever. You are not in the power of people; and not in the power of the devil, either.
He may pester you – and surely he will because he hates your Dad and hates your brother Jesus – but in his power? No, you are no more in his power.
Whatever is evil and terrible in this world can happen to you, too, but God invites you to relax!
Mind you, Jesus Christ Who is King on the throne is teaching the world certain lessons. Revelation 6 tells us that it is at JESUS’ command that the red horse is let loose upon the world: the red horse – with on it that rider who has the power to take peace away from the world.
When the world reckons it can run its own show without the God of Whom it has heard but Whom it ignores, what do you reckon should happen to it? You belong to the people of God. Can YOU stand it that people ignore your father? Yes, sure pray for peace, but not a peace at any price. And if it happens otherwise, know that the One who is in control is still your brother, God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
When we pray for peace we pray not for the selfish peace in which we can go on pleasing ourselves. We pray for justice to undergird the peace that gives God His rights and Jesus the glory.
It is when you have in your heart and in your life, already this Sabbath rest, this trusting relaxation, that you will pray “YOUR Kingdom Come!” and be relaxed enough to know that – as the Bible says – the Kingdom will not come because clever godless people somehow find the formula of economic justice and international cooperation, but because God will get knees to bow before Him and tongues to confess that HE is Lord.
And if that is not yet to happen (or no more to happen) this side of Christ’s second coming, so be it; there still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And so we try to tell our children where their true security lies.
How much must God take away from you before you see that again!
You cannot relax when your treasure is all bound up with this world.
You’re the people of GOD, are you? It is for them that the rest remains. Those who TRULY know Who their BIG BROTHER is, relax and have happy years.
But let us go a bit further here…
(3) RELAX; because you RELY, you trust!
Remember the Israelites in that week that the first manna fell? They had to get a double lot on the day before the Sabbath, and while the stuff always rotted away after an hour or so, now it would keep. Well some of them did not trust in God that way.
They thought: we better be careful.
To relax while there is so much to do… and to celebrate while so much seems to go off the rails, that really is a test of trust. How much do you rely on God; and how much do you, say, in sickness, rely on doctors? Oh, some of our charismatic brethren overdo things when not going to doctors, they just throw the whole sickness thing into the lap of God: “Father, you look after us; You better handle this thing alone.”
Sure, He gave doctors and medicines, too. But tell me, what do you trust more? If you have trouble to trust God fully, when the chips are really down, God can understand that. Elisha had that crisis too, when Big Boss Elijah had gone to heaven and now he had to be prophet.
Remember him, standing by the river Jordan? On the way up, it had been Elijah who had hit the waters of Jordan with his prophet’s mantle rolled up, and those waters had split! Now that mantle had fallen on Elisha when his Master has travelled up to heaven in a fiery chariot.
All very nice! But now, what must little Elisha do? Well, he too rolls up that mantle and hits the Jordan waters but listen to what he says, nay shouts!
WHERE IS GOD, THE LORD, THE GOD OF ELIJAH?
There is a defiant note in that cry. But God understands and smiles at his new servant and — since He is there all right – splits the waters of Jordan for him, too! Hurrah for God! You can trust Him and He understands when His children struggle with that problem of fully trusting Him.
He knows. Things don’t look as if He were boss, do they!? But what makes trusting God always difficult, also today, is trying to hedge your bets and trust someone else or something else also, sort of, on the side. We must learn again to “take our trust away from all creatures and give it to God alone!” There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, He gives His children as in their sleep the ability to relax, never mind getting up early and working late, but then you have to trust Him alone.
AND THAT TAKES SOME DOING, that’s why faith is also obedience. God is a jealous Lover. He wants to be the only one, and if we have trouble learning that, then He will show you His love, He will show you how much He cares for you and your happiness, by taking things away from you that you thought you could not do without. Well, says God, I have news for you: relax! You can! One leg in the world and one leg in the kingdom of God – that does not make for happy Christians.
Serving God AND serving Money, that does not make for joyful and peaceful relaxed Christians. God’s Word is sharp and it cuts through heart and soul, separating even bone from marrow. He does not make things easy for His children today, but then why should He?
He is the only Giver of Sabbath Rest AND He wants you to have it. So He asks: where do you want your happiness to lie in the years to come. Having lots of money? If that’s what you reckon, He may make it all disappear. Many of our older members know that there was more joy and more contentment and more peace in your heart when you struggled through the Second World War or when you had to make do with little money and a garage to live in for a family with half a dozen children.
God is not telling you these things to be hard on you or make your life miserable, but to make you, exactly today in this day and age, into the relaxed people of the Sabbath rest! Light-bearers in a dark world; and joyful givers of His riches to others in a time of increasing poverty. All around us people perish, families break up and youngsters roam the highways of life sold to drugs and without hope or joy. What are the people of God doing for them? Putting their trust in money?
If you rely on creatures instead of God, then every year of your life may become a terrible year for you in spite of all the optimistic warblings about an economic upturn.
But if you rely on God you can relax and therefore continue giving. You are entering the Promised Land where your Big Brother is Boss, and you’re glad He is Watching You! You relax because it is on HIM ALONE you rely…!
And finally…
(4) You relax and so you not only rely, but you also RELAY.
That means you confess. You make no secret of the riches you have. You share the message of the One Who set you free.
It is great when God’s people cannot keep quiet about the Lord they love. The more you see the gospel, the more you know what God has given you in Christ, the more relaxed Sabbath-life will show in your attitudes and bubble over in your words and you will be known for it, known for having the joy of the Lord in your midst.
That should not be just a peculiarity of some Christians that is to be a hallmark of being a Christian; and it is the strongest evangelism tool there is or always was.
A world that suffocates in its tensions looks with jealousy and interest at people who know how to relax!
It comes and asks questions of those who are walking in the Sabbath Rest of the Lord!
If anything it is that which tells a weary and waiting world that Jesus has come and is coming again.
Amen.