Bible Passage: Colossians 2:13-17

Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: June 2, 2024

Bulletin June 2, 2024

Solus Christus

Finding Our Sabbath in the Cross

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

In order to appreciate our text this morning, we need to have a little knowledge about the Jewish concept of “sabbath.”  The word “sabbath” means “rest.”  It is a concept the Lord wanted to deeply impress on his Old Testament people.  The Lord gave Israel her calendar with these instructions:  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. (Exodus 20:8-11)  Thus the “Sabbath day” was born for Israel.

The Lord prohibited work on the Sabbath.  So then the question became, “What is work?”  Over time the rabbis developed 39 categories of work that were forbidden on the Sabbath:   sowing, plowing, reaping, gathering, threshing, winnowing, sorting, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing, bleaching, combing, dyeing, spinning, stretching threads, preparing to weave, weaving, separating threads, tying a knot, untying a knot, sewing, tearing, trapping, slaughtering, skinning, salting, tracing lines, scraping, cutting, writing two or more letters, erasing two or more letters, building, demolishing, extinguishing a flame, kindling a flame, striking a blow with a hammer, carrying an object from domain to domain.

It became a lot of work to keep the Sabbath!  The people had lost the whole point of the Sabbath.  The Sabbath was never meant to smother God’s people under dozens of legal definitions and restrictions of what “work” is.  It was meant to foreshadow the rest the Savior would bring.  Our text serves as a timely reminder that we Find Our Sabbath in the Cross.

The Colossian Christians were being told by some that they needed to get to work!  And not in a good way.  It seems some loudmouths had come to them with some “additional information” regarding their faith.  They were being told faith in Christ alone wasn’t enough.  Just before our text Paul tells the Colossians:  See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (2:8)  Just after our text Paul will explain a little bit more about these “basic principles” of this world.  He wrote, Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules:  “Do not handle!  Do not taste!  Do not touch!”?  The Colossians were being told, “Chop!  Chop!  Get to work!  Don’t touch that unclean stuff!  Only buy food at the kosher deli!”

It’s review time for the Colossians.  God made you alive with Christ. (v. 13)  They did not have spiritual life because they were in compliance with a bunch of rules.  They had life because God made them alive with Christ!  Here’s how:  …by forgiving us all our trespasses.  God erased the record of our debt brought against us by his legal demands.  This record stood against us, but he took it away by nailing it to the cross. (v. 13-14)  Think about it this way.  In our legal system there is what is called a “bill of indictment.”  A bill of indictment is a written document that accuses a person of certain crimes.  God’s Law is like a bill of indictment against each one of us.  It accuses.  It details our offenses.  It cites the statutes of God we have broken.  But God took that bill of indictment that was against us and he gave it to Jesus.  And then Jesus was nailed to the cross for our sins.  Thus, that bill of indictment has been nailed to the cross!

Paul even adds this.  After disarming the rulers and authorities [these are the powers of hell], he made a public display of them by triumphing over them in Christ. (v. 15)  Christ makes a display of the powers of hell!  The devil now stands there like a prosecuting attorney without a bill of indictment.  You can’t prosecute without a bill of indictment!  He can’t accuse us!  He’s got nothing!  He’s exposed!  He lost his case!  He is put on display as the loser at Jesus’ cross!

And so Paul says to the Colossians that no one can harass them and judge them about their compliance to the Old Testament laws about religious festivals or kosher foods, or even the Sabbath Day.  These were a shadow that outlined Jesus and his cross.  Now that the body of Jesus was really pinned to the cross, they don’t need to obey those “shadow-laws.”  They could find their “sabbath,” their rest in Jesus.

And you can, too.  Find your rest in the cross.  “Rest” means the cessation of work.  When God rested on the seventh day of creation week, he stopped the work of creating.  The cross of Jesus means you can stop working.  Stop working to make God like you!  Stop working to be “worthy” of God and his love!  Isn’t that how we feel sometimes?  We feel like we must work to be “likable” to God.  Stop trying to make God like you!  If you try to make God like you, you “gut” the word grace of all its comfort!  “Grace” means God loves you even though you are not likable.   God wants to be gracious!  Let him be gracious.  He likes you!  Just look at Jesus’ cross.

Stop working to pay for your sins.  That is the exclusive work of Jesus!  Yet how often doesn’t that thought pop into our heads?  “Oh, I lost my temper.  I better be extra nice tomorrow.”  “I shouldn’t have said that; I’ll say some extra prayers.”  “I shouldn’t have watched that; I’ll do a little extra Bible reading.”  We believe there is some sort of “Christian yin and yang.”  I will offset my bad with good.  Stop working to create your own righteousness!  Stop working to be your own Savior.  That position has already been filled by Jesus at the cross!  Find your rest in him.

You just sang the words of that beautiful hymn “In Christ Alone.”  Those words stand out today:  “What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are stilled, when strivings cease.”  “When strivings cease.”  That means that in Jesus our work ends.  He has done all the striving and the hard work to save you!  Now we find rest in him and his cross alone.

Amen.