How to Live In God's Rest, Part 1: Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

By davidwpalmer on July 22, 2024

David W Palmer

(Matthew 12:1 NKJV) At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

This was probably a culturally accepted practice; if you were hungry while travelling, it was ok to take some un-harvested grain from a farmer's field, and to eat it. But this meant that you had to prepare it manually—unlike the wheat, flour, or bread you may buy in a shop today. It seems they were rubbing the grain in their hands to remove the husks:

(Luke 6:1 MKJV) … His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate, rubbing them in their hands.

This seemed harmless enough, and it was God's means of provision through nature. However, to some at that time it was seen as work:

(Matthew 12:2 NKJV) And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!"

This criticism from the "dead religion" leaders was a perfect opportunity for Jesus to refute their heartless motivation, and to give some needed teaching to his disciples. The Master needed immediately to shine a bright light on this dark, deadly deception of loveless legalism; like yeast, it can spread and infect a whole group very quickly (See also: Mat. 16:6–12):

(Matthew 12:3–8 NKJV) But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: {4} how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?"

Jesus's first rebuttal of this deception was to quote a passage from scripture where king David led his men into God's house, and ate bread that was consecrated for Priests' use only. His followed this with his second point of rebuttal:

(Matthew 12:5–8 NKJV) "Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? {6} Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. {7} But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless."

Appealing to the Old Testament for his second witness, Jesus quoted from the "law." But now he adds a powerful declaration about his own divinity and authority. He said that the priests could eat consecrated bread, thus breaking an instruction from another place in the law—but only if they ate it in the temple while on priestly duty. Then he declared that eating while on mission for him was a far greater authority for breaking the Old Testament law than the temple duty of the priests. In saying this, Jesus announced a powerful and revolutionary change; "In this place there is One greater than the temple"—Jesus supersedes the physical temple. For us, this means: "If you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law" (Gal. 5:18 NKJV).

The Pharisees would have been seething—if, that is, they could grasp what just happened; Jesus had plainly declared that he is God. But then Jesus added an explosive follow-up statement, saying that his personal authority and say-so eclipsed even the law of the Sabbath:

(Matthew 12:8 NKJV) "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Mark recounts Jesus adding even one more layer to this:

(Mark 2:27 KJV) And he said unto them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."

I love what the commentary says about this:

Mark alone has this profound saying, which subordinates the Sabbath to man's real welfare (Robertson's Word Pictures, e-sword).

In other words, God instituted the Sabbath in the Old Testament to protect man from himself, and to see to his welfare. The Sabbath rest is supposed to help us stay healthy, live long, and have ample time to invest in loving God and family. Using the law of the Sabbath to make man's life less healthy and in more bondage is a complete reversal of God's intentions. By trying to use the Sabbath as a way of preventing Jesus's disciples receiving God's provision, the Pharisees showed that—even though they knew God's law—they didn't understand his heart. God created the Sabbath as a way to bless man.

Jesus said that he is "Lord of the Sabbath." Sabbath means rest; Lord means controller. So Jesus is the controller, or in charge of, having us come to rest. The Old Testament was a picture of what God truly had in mind: he wants us to live in rest spiritually; the definition of which says that he wants us to "desist from exertion."

The New Testament epistle of Hebrews teaches on this same rest:

(Hebrews 4:3–10 MKJV) For we who have believed do enter into the rest … {10} For he who has entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His.

Here, the Holy Spirit clearly says that God wants us at rest; and that the condition for entering this rest is to "believe"—in other words, faith. But in an ironical twist, in the very next verse the Holy Spirit goes on to say:

(Hebrews 4:11 MKJV) Therefore let us labor to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of unbelief.

"Labor to enter into that rest"? This sure is a strange sounding concept. In the Old Testament, like God in creation, they did all their work in six days so they could rest on the seventh. They prepared enough food, did enough work, and labored hard enough to get a day ahead. In that sense, they had labored to enter the rest of the Sabbath Day.

However, in the New Testament this has a new dimension added to it. If faith is how we are to enter the "rest" God is offering us, then the labor to which he is exhorting us is not merely physical. In another place, he calls it the "fight of faith":

(1 Timothy 6:12 NKJV) "Fight the good fight of faith …"

Jesus is the "Lord of the Sabbath"; he is the controller of this type of rest. This may sound like I am repeating what I have said many times before, but Jesus is the living Word of God. So the living Word controls the rest. In other words, the labor of faith to which God calls us is the work required to:

Hear the word
Study the word
Learn the word
Confess the word
Preach the word
Pray the word
Sing the word
Shout the word
Use it as a sword
Use it to renew your mind
Gaze at it like a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns; that is, until revelation comes.

With the revelation of God's word, which comes from heaven via the Holy Spirit, also comes faith, light, health, grace, life, and mind renewal. It is God's sword of the spirit, which we must apply repeatedly until every demon, oppression, doubt, unbelieving deception, and fear is cast down, cast out, neutralized, or removed. Then … perfect peace—your faith has prevailed; you are at rest. This is the rest that Jesus—the living Word—is the controller of.

Tomorrow, we will look at the dire consequences of not taking on this "fight of faith"; but for now we ask: "What can we learn from what we have seen? How can we apply it today?"

First, we learn from the way Jesus instantly withstood and refuted the death-producing lies of religion; they tried to upend God's purpose for Sabbath rest, but Jesus annihilated them with pure truth. In other words, we must "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3 NKJV). God created the Sabbath rest to bless you; fight for it to be understood as his love, not his burden or weapon for religious oppression!

Second, we see that Jesus's presence and instructions supersede the law. Note, this only applies practically to us "if" …

(Galatians 5:18 NKJV) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Please don't try to live above the law—God's moral law, the civil law, or leader's instructions unless you are truly "let by the [Holy] Spirit" of God. Then and only then are you "not under the law."

Today, I encourage you to keep persisting in your faith— "labor to enter that rest." Stay in the word; keep confessing it, praying it, believing it, hearing it, singing it, discussing it, learning it, and praising God for it … press on … then do it some more … and just when you feel you cannot go on, keep at it; eventually peace will come. This could take ten seconds or ten hours; but peace is promised if you live by faith, and allow the living word to control your life. Remember, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. This whole process is made to benefit you, and to give you supernatural peace in the face of storms and end-time shaking; the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.