Fellowship Baptist Church
8-13-23 Visual Notes
Catch the Context

Jesus warned unrepentant towns about the future judgment that awaited them if the continued to reject Him (Mt 11:20-24). We also heard the compassionate cry of Jesus offering rest in Him.

Matthew 11:28–30 (NIV) Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

As we’ve seen, Jesus had several confrontational talks with religious leaders. Some of them had even said Jesus performed miracles by the power of the devil (Mt 9:34). And it’s about to get even worse between Jesus and the Pharisees, at The Sabbath Showdown.

Shabbat (Sabbath) has always been Friday night sundown to Saturday night sundown, a time of rest.

While having a day of rest and gathering with believers is still necessary, Hebrews 4 teaches that our Sabbath rest is found in what Jesus did on the cross. Our spiritual rest - our peace with God - is found through the death & resurrection of Jesus. This is the ultimate fulfillment of what the Old Testament Sabbath pointed to. The principle to rest one day out of the week is still vital and practical, but the New Testament puts no focus on WHICH day that should be (Ro 14:5; Col 2:16).  

  • The Jews took Sabbath observance so seriously that enemies took advantage of them by attacking on the Sabbath. Over one hundred years before the time of Jesus, in the days of the Maccabees, the Jews to be slaughtered rather than break the Sabbath by defending themselves (1 Macc. 2:31–38).[3] Men, women, and children died rather than ‘break the Sabbath’ by fighting back on that day.
  • By A.D. 200, the Mishnah - a written collection of Rabbinical Rules - named 39 different kinds of work that profaned the Sabbath. This included: plowing, hunting, and butchering, tying or loosening knots, sewing more than one stitch, or writing more than one letter.[4]

God intended this to be a BLESSING for people, NOT a BURDEN (The Sabbath wasn’t meant to be a long checklist of what you couldn’t do).

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[3] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 299.

[4] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 93–94.

Fellowship Baptist Church
info@fellowshipofmadison.com
850-973-3266
http://www.fellowshipofmadison.com
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