Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Lord of the Sabbath

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

In Mark 2, Jesus makes a claim that is so over the top, so out of all categories, so outrageous that the religious leaders don’t even have a word for it. They’ve called him blasphemous before, but this claim goes beyond their words. In this passage, two incidents are linked together, both having to do with the Sabbath. And what Jesus says is that he’s not here to reform religion—he’s here to absolutely end religion and replace it with himself.  What we’re going to see is, 1) on the one hand, the futility of religion and, 2) on the other hand, the finality of Jesus Christ. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 19, 2006. Series: King’s Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 1: The Coming of the King. Scripture: Mark 2:23-3:6. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. This month on our podcast, we're doing something a little different. We've curated a collection of sermons and talks from across the 28 years that Tim Keller preached at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. The messages featured this month explore a range of topics that show us how the gospel affects every aspect of our lives, including vocation, friendship, and the mission of the Church. Because as we believe, the gospel can change everything.

The scripture reading is taken from Mark chapter 2 verses 23 through chapter 3 verse 6, found on page 8 of the bulletin. One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? he answered. Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abbaothar, the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat, and he also gave some to his companions. Then he said to them, The Sabbath was made for

man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Another time he went into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, stand up in front of everyone. Then Jesus asked them, which is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts,

said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. This is the word of the Lord. We've been looking at the book of Mark and the life of Jesus in the book of Mark, and last week we saw that Jesus claimed to be able to forgive sins, which of course is something that the religious leaders were able to call blasphemy, blasphemy. However, this week, Jesus goes one up on himself. He does something this week. He makes a claim this week that

is so over the top, so out of all categories, so outrageous that the leaders this week don't categories, so outrageous that the leaders this week don't have a word for it. Because what Jesus says this week in this passage is not that he's here to do reforming of religion, but he is here to end religion, to absolutely end it and to replace it with himself. See what I mean? Let's take a look at this passage, which actually, as you can see, are two incidents, both having to do with the Sabbath, that are linked together here. And what we're going to see is, on the one hand, the futility of religion, and on the other hand, the finality of Jesus Christ. The futility of religion, the finality of Christ. The futility of religion, the finality of Christ. First, let's look at the second

of the two incidents that tells us something about the futility of religion. Here we have Jesus in the synagogue, it's a Sabbath day, in comes a man with a shriveled hand. The leaders are starting to look to see if they can find some way to see Jesus breaking the Sabbath, violating some of the regulations that everyone used to observe the Sabbath at the time. Jesus gets angry at them and heals the man with a shriveled hand. Now what do we learn here? Well, first, the law of God directed that you had to rest from your work one day in seven. And yet, as great as that sounds, the religious leaders of the day saddled this law with so many specific regulations.

There were 39 types of work that you could not do, 39 types of activity that you could not do on the Sabbath. One of them was picking grain as you walk through a field. And of course in the second incident they're looking to see whether Jesus does something that breaks one of those regulations. Now here's the reason Jesus is so angry. Think about it, just common sense. What is the Sabbath about? Think about it. What is the day of rest all about? It's about restoring the diminished. It's about replenishing the drained. It's about repairing the broken.

So a man with a shriveled hand, to deal with that shriveled hand, is to do exactly what the Sabbath is all about. And yet, because they were so concerned to make sure that we followed the regulations about the Sabbath, they didn't want him to heal the man with a shriveled hand, which is an incredible example of missing, spiritually speaking, the forest for the trees. Their hearts were as shriveled as the man's

hand. They're insecure and anxious about the regulations. they're tribal and self-obsessed with their own instead of caring about the man, they're judgemental. Why? The answer is religion. Because in this great verse 27, which we'll get back to actually in the second point here, this great verse 27 is a very, very profound statement. He says, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And for a minute, let's not think about the particular rule of the Sabbath. You know, God says many things. He laid down many laws. He says, rest one day out of seven.

But he also said, don't commit adultery. He said, don't lie. He said, give your money to the poor. And here's what Jesus is saying. He says, there are two paradigms, two spiritual paradigms. And in one, the moral law is a burden. It enslaves you. And in the other, the same moral law can be a blessing,

can be a gift, can lead to flourishing. Here's two different people, Jesus is saying, and they both are trying to obey the law of God. They both want to obey the Sabbath day, or they want to obey any of the laws of God. But in one case, their obedience is a burden. In one case, the law of God is an incredible burden. They're enslaved to it.

In the other, it's a gift. He's talking about, therefore, in verse 27, two spiritual paradigms, and he's contrasting them because they're radically different. And these paradigms are the gospel of Jesus Christ and human religion. The gospel of Christ and human religion are two completely different paradigms. So, for example, most people in the world believe that if there is a God, you relate to God by being good. Now, all religions are based on that principle, though of course there's a million different variations on it. Some religions are what you might call

nationalistic. So what they are is they say you connect to God by coming into our people group and taking upon yourself the markers of being a part of this society. Other religions are spiritualistic. They say you reach God by working yourself through certain transformations of consciousness. Other religions are formally legalistic. There's a code of conduct and if you do it, then God will bless you. But they're all based on the same idea. Religion is based on the principle that if I perform, if I obey and I perform, I'm accepted. Christianity is not only different than that. It is absolutely diametrically opposed to it, completely opposed to it. Because religion says, I obey, therefore I'm accepted. But Christianity, the gospel of Jesus is,

I am fully accepted in Jesus Christ, therefore I obey. The gospel is not like religion. Religion is, I give God something, then he owes me. Because I'm a good person, and he needs to treat me that way. And other people do too. I give God something, he owes me. Christianity is God through Jesus Christ gives you a complete salvation, which you

receive by sheer grace, and then you gladly and gratefully live for him. Exactly the opposite. In religion, you are saved by being better than everybody else, by rising above the masses and living the good life, and taking the narrow path and going the way of performance. In other words, you are saved by being better than others, but in Christianity you're only saved if you admit you're absolutely no better than anyone else. When you admit that you're absolutely not better than anyone else, that you basically are in many, many ways, in all sorts of ways, spiritual and moral failure and you can only be saved by grace. Those are two absolutely

different paradigms. Now today, in this passage, we're actually seeing one particular way of contrasting these two frameworks or paradigms, and that is how does a moral law function? Here's two people, and they both want to obey what God says. They both want to obey the commandment about giving to the poor or not committing adultery or not lying or resting one day in seven. Okay, so here they are. But the two, the law, the moral law, God's law, functions in two totally different ways in the two different paradigms. In religion, the purpose of obeying the law, the purpose of the law, is to assure you that you're okay with God. That's the purpose. The purpose

of the law is to assure yourself. You're working very hard to do all these things to assure yourself that you are a good person and therefore God owes you to answer your prayers and bless you, take you to heaven and so on. And as a result when you come to the law what you're most concerned about is detail. You want to know exactly what you've got to do. So you have to push all the buttons. You have to know exactly what you have to do so you can be assured. The purpose of the law, the purpose of obeying the law, is to assure yourself that you're

a good person, you're doing everything right. So you're not going to want to look at the broad meaning, the broad purpose, moral, the broad motives of the law. You're going to be very concerned. In fact, you're going to write in to the moral law all sorts of details that aren't really there so you can assure yourself that you're obeying it. But in the gospel, the law of God has a completely different function. It's there to take you out of yourself.

It's there to show you the kind of life of love that you want to live before the God who's done all this for you. So the law of God is a way of showing you how to love God and how to love others instead of being absorbed on yourself. And so the law of God is sketching out a particular kind of life. So when you look at it, you want to see the broad purpose of the law and you want to see the motivations of the heart and you're not as concerned about the details. Because in religion, obeying the law makes you feel better than everybody else because you are complying with the details.

In the Gospel, when you look in front of the law of God, you're humbled by it, and you say, oh, I can never live up to this, and yet God loves me in spite of that, and I'm going to do my best to resemble him and live a life of love that he wants me to live. So in other words, in religion, the law, you can look at the details. In the Gospel, you look at the broad motivations and trajectory of the law. In religion, it makes you feel better that you're obeying. In the gospel, it humbles you. Now, just to try to concretize this a little bit, just to give you an example of this,

I remember it's very, very vivid because it was one of the first places. Sometimes my pastoral illustrations go way, way back into my little town in Hopewell where I was a pastor, Virginia, for ten years. One good reason to use it is there's nobody here that will think I'm talking about them. One other good reason is because when I was a younger man, many of these pennies just dropped. Some of these distinctions became real to me for the first time in some of these interactions. I remember after I preached a sermon on love your neighbor as yourself. This is in the town of Virginia. Love your neighbor as yourself.

And the way I explained it was I said here's what I think we're being asked to do in this law. You know, love your neighbor as yourself. God is saying I want you to meet the needs of other people, meet the needs of your neighbor with all of the joy, with all of the eagerness, with all of the quickness, with all of the ingenuity, with all of the creativity in the industry with which you meet your own. I want you to meet the needs of other people with all the same kind of intensity with which you meet your own. That's the standard.

That's how I want you to live your life. I remember after the service, a teenage girl in my church came up to me and said, let me get this straight. And she explained that she had just been in the home, this is 1977 or something like that, she had just been in the homecoming pageant with her best friend and she'd come in kind of like last in the pageant and her friend had won. And she said, so you're trying to tell me that the Bible says that I should be as happy for her as I would have been for myself if I had won. I should be just as excited, just as happy, just as celebratory with her as if it had happened to me. I said,

hmm, well you know, that was pretty good application. I wish I had put that in the sermon, you know. That's a great application of the text. Thank you very much. I said, yeah, that's right. And she looked at me and she says, Christianity is ridiculous. Nobody can live like that. Who lives like that? And we sat down and I said, okay, love your neighbor as yourself. She said, that's ridiculous. She said, first of all, I want to know exactly who my neighbor is. It can't be everybody in the world. That's ridiculous. No, I could never do that. I want to know who my neighbors are.

You know, what number of square blocks does the, you know, around my house does the Bible, you know, cover? And then second, she said, I want to know exactly what you have to do. I mean, you can't, you know, what are the things I have to do for my neighbor? And she was a little Pharisee. And not a superior little Pharisee, an anxious Pharisee. Not somebody who felt better, somebody who felt worse. You know, not in any way a self-righteous, arrogant person, but see, for her, because she was not awash in the love and acceptance of God through Christ. Because that penny had never dropped for her. The purpose of the law was to assure herself she

was a good person so she could know that God and other people had to treat her as a good person. She had the right to think of herself as a good person. And therefore, any law that was that broad, you know, that was painting this life of love, she couldn't handle it. She didn't have the emotional security to handle it. She wanted to narrow it down. She wanted to make it detailed. She wanted to nail it down. It was so that she could feel good about herself when it was done. You see how different that is? And by the way, she's all right now. Anyway, however, you see how radically different that is. And by the way, she's all right now. Anyway, however, you see how radically different religion is from the gospel and the text goes even further to show how radically different religion is from the gospel. Because not only Jesus is angry, somebody else is

angry. Verse 6 is one of the most remarkable verses in the New Testament. It says, then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. This sums up one of the main themes of the New Testament. I want you to think about this for a second. Who were the Herodians? The Herodians were the supporters of Herod, the Herod, the dynasty that ruled Israel representing the Roman occupying of the dynasty that ruled Israel representing the Roman occupying power. In other words, the Herodians were those people who represented the occupying power of Rome politically and the Hellenizing culture of Greece. Because wherever Rome went, they conquered a country and they set up their rulers and wherever Rome went, they brought with them the culture of Greece. The Greek approach to sex and the body,

the Greek approach to pluralism and to spirituality, the Greek approach to all these things. And so they would take over these countries and they would rule those countries and they would bring this sort of paganism culture. And so many of these countries like Israel, for example, felt assaulted by these immoral, cosmopolitan, pluralistic, pagan values. And so in these countries, like for example in Israel, there were resistance movements, the Pharisees. And the Pharisees put all the emphasis on, we have to live according to the Bible and we have to put big hedges around us and the pagans, we have to live very moral life and very, very biblical lives and very, very, very good lives, you see. Now that means, you see what's going on? The Herodians are

from the blue states and the Pharisees are the leaders of the red states, traditional values, moral values. The Pharisees felt, just like leaders of the red states feel, that they're being overwhelmed with the cosmopolitanism and pluralism and paganism of the blue states. And we have to go back to traditional moral values, and we have to go back to biblical values, and we have to read the Bible, and we have to be good, right? These are the leaders of the red states and the leaders of the blue states, but they agree that we have to get rid of Jesus. These are two people who never, these are two groups that never talk to each other, but now they do. In fact, notice that Pharisees, the religious people, take the lead. And this is one of the main themes of the Bible. The gospel of Jesus Christ

is neither religion or irreligion. It's neither moralism or relativism. It's not traditional moral values or do whatever you feel is good for you. It's neither. When Jesus meets Nicodemus, the Pharisee, the religious leader, he says, you're lost, you need to be warned again. Here's a person trying to live according to biblical values, you're lost. And then the very next chapter, the way he's nicer about it, than he is with Nicodemus, he meets the woman at the well. And she's had multiple husbands and she had multiple lovers living with a man who she's not married to. And he calls her to change. See, there's basically two approaches to life. Moral conformity, I'm going to be living

a very, very good life. Or self-discovery. You have to decide what is right or wrong for you. And according to the Bible, they are both ways of being your own savior and lord. See, here's one person who says, Bible, I decide what's right or wrong for me. I live my own way. See, that's a person who's being his or her own savior, self-discovery. But over here is a person saying, I'm going to everything in it, I'm gonna do everything in it, that way God has to take me to Heaven. You're being your own Savior too. You're the Savior.

You're being so good. So here's somebody who wants to throw this thing away, and here's somebody who's trying really, really hard to obey so God will have to take you to Heaven. It's the same thing. You're both hostile to the message of Jesus. You're both as far away from the message of Jesus as you could be from you.

Think about it. And not only that, both of these approaches lead to self-righteousness. Oh yes they do. Because the moralist says, the good people are in and the bad people are out. And of course we're the good ones. Now the secular self-discovery people say,

oh no, no, no. The progressive-minded, open-minded people are in, and the judgmental bigots are out. And of course, we're the open-minded people. You know, in New York City, where of course, it's a blue state, you know, there's an enormous amount of self-righteousness about self-righteousness. In New York, we are so self-righteous about self-righteousness, we are so much better than people who think they are better than people. You see, the secularism is not, the secularism leads to as much superiority and self-righteousness

as religion does. It is not the way that we're going to heal the divisions and the exclusiveness out there in the divisions of the human race, no way. But you see, here's what the gospel says. The gospel does not say the good are in and the bad are out, nor that the open-minded are in and the judgmental are out. The gospel says the humble are in and the proud are out. The gospel says the people who know that they're not better than anyone else, they're not

more open-minded, they're not more moral, the people who know they're not better than others are in and the people who think they're on the right side of the divide are out. God has worked through Tim Keller's teaching to help countless people discover Christ's redemptive love and grow in their faith as they learn how the gospel is the key to every aspect of life. This month, we're featuring a brand new book by author Matt Smethurst titled, Tim Keller on the Christian Life.

In it, he distills biblical insights from Tim Keller's nearly 50 years of sermons, books and conference messages, including each of the sermons we've highlighted on the podcast this month. The book explores foundational theological themes from Tim Keller's work, like grace, idolatry, justice, prayer, suffering, and more.

It's a resource that we hope will help you apply the gospel more richly to your everyday life. We'll send you a copy as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the good news of Christ's love with people all over the world. Just visit gospelonlife.com slash give to request your copy. That's Gospelonlife.com slash give. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Now, let me, I better conclude here at this point. Fortunately for you and me, there's only one other point in this sermon. But let me say that one of the reasons I'm on the earth today is to tell you this particular thing, because this is a theme, it's a major theme, it runs through all the way through the New Testament, and yet it's not a thing that people seem to understand. And so if you're a Christian, here's what I have to say to you about this. Religion is, I obey, therefore I'm accepted. That leads to self-righteousness. It leads to spiritual deadness. It leads to superiority or anxiety if you're not living up, you know. If you're living up to your

standards you feel better than everybody else. You're bold but not humble. If you're failing, you're humble, you know, but you're not bold and confident. It leads to spiritual deadness. It leads to thin-skinnedness. It leads to being very, very critical and judgmental, everybody else. Religion is, I obey, therefore I'm accepted. The gospel is, I'm accepted through Jesus Christ, therefore I obey. But I want you to know, your life is not like a table. And here's religion and here's the gospel. Your life is like this. It is the default mode of the human heart to keep, in spite of what you say, in spite of what you believe, the default mode of the human heart to keep in spite of what you say in spite of what you believe the default mode of the human heart is always go back toward religion always go back toward I'm obey therefore I'm accepted and

Therefore because your life because your heart is like a table like this Unless you're always clawing your way back toward the gospel every single day forcing yourself to remember the gospel Say why do I feel like that if I believe that I'm a sinner saved by grace? Why do I feel inferior? Why do I feel superior? Why am I so worried? Why am I so mad at God? All those things don't go with I'm a sinner saved by sheer grace. They go with I am owed because I've lived a good life. See, because your life is like, your heart is like a table, like this, unless you're clawing your way up to the belief in the gospel every single day, you're sliding into religion. And you're sliding into all the stuff, all those things I just said, the spiritual deadness

and the self-righteousness and the anxiety and the judgmentalism that the rest of the world rightly hates about religion. If you are skeptical about Christianity, I must say that virtually every person I've ever talked to in New York City who is skeptical of Christianity, doesn't believe in Christianity, doesn't want to be a Christian, thinks that Christianity and religion are the same thing. And there's some warrant for that because of the way Christians act. But I'm telling you, you're wrong. And you need to start exploring Christianity itself. You've rejected something you don't understand. So first of all, we see here the futility of religion. But how can Jesus Christ really

pull off this change and just say, religion's over because I'm here? Secondly, I want to show you what he says about the finality of himself and it's really remarkable. Look at the second thing that he does. Again, let me read you these two verses in verse 27 and 28. They are remarkable. Then he said to them, the Sabbath was made is Lord even of the Sabbath." That's amazing. First of all, he says you do need the Sabbath. You notice when he says the Sabbath, he does not say the Sabbath was made for Jews, nor does he say the Sabbath was made for my followers, for Christians. He doesn't say the Sabbath is just for certain people. He says the Sabbath is made for humanity humanity and that means you've got to rest from your work. You

can't overdo it. You've got to put a limitation on your work. So in other words, Jesus is affirming the basic principle of the Sabbath. And yet over and over and over and over again he squashes, he tramples on all of the rules and regulations, the legalism around the Sabbath. And he comes in and says, I'm blowing all that away. I'm blowing everything away about your religious, you know, legalistic way in which you've used the Sabbath. He's blowing away the whole religious paradigm. He's saying, no, we're not going to do any of that stuff. How dare he? Where does he get off doing that? And the answer is, verse 28, I, the son of man, which is what he calls himself, I am Lord even of the Sabbath.

What did he just say? I want you to see the magnitude of what he just said. First of all, he didn't only say, I have the divine authority to change the Sabbath. He could have said that. He could have even said, I'm Lord over the Sabbath, or something like that. But see, the word Sabbath means the deep rest, deep peace. It's almost a synonym for shalom.

And Jesus says, I am the Lord of rest. I am the source of the deep rest you need. I am the Sabbath. The reason I'm coming to completely change the way in which you do your rest is I'm the Sabbath. I fulfill the Sabbath. The one day a week rest you get is just an image of the deep rest, the deep divine rest, the rest of God that I'm the source of.

Now you think I'm reading too much into there? No, because you know in Matthew chapter 11 he says, come to me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now when he says, I am the Lord of the Sabbath, that is so over the top. His self-consciousness is so incredible. It's so outrageous. It's so bursting through all the categories. It's so beyond beyond. It's so off the map that we need to spend a little time and just see what he's saying. Let's talk about the lordness of him and the Sabbathness of him. The lordness of Jesus and the Sabbathness of Jesus. First of all, the lordness. Here's another example.

Remember last week he says, I forgive all your sins. And remember what we said that was? He was claiming that all sins are against him. You can only forgive sins against you. So when he forgives a man all his sins, he's saying all your sins are against me. Now what is he talking about? Over and over again, Jesus shows that his self-consciousness, his understanding

of who he is, was unprecedented. There is no one else who's ever made, no human being who's ever walked the face of the earth that I know has made anything like these kinds of claims, honestly. You know, you have to remember there are people, there's been plenty of people who said, oh, I'm the divine consciousness, but they think of the divinity as something that's in all of us and it's in the trees and it's in the human spirit. Jesus understands that there is a God who is uncreated, who is beginningless, who is infinitely transcendent above this creation, who made this world, who keeps everything in the universe going with his pinky, with the word of power, that all the molecules and all the stars

and all the solar systems are being held up by the power of this God. And Jesus Christ says, that's who I am. And it's on every page. Even his offhanded comments, like in Luke chapter 10, there's a great place. I love these places. There's a place in Luke chapter 10

where Jesus is talking about demon possession. You know what he says? He says, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. What? You know what he just said? He says, yes, I remember back before the material universe was created. I saw Lucifer go bad. It was terrible. Yeah, I was around. I knew him. What? There's another place in Matthew where he says, again, it's almost off-handed, I keep sending you prophets and sages.

What? He says, wait a minute. He doesn't say, I am one of the great prophets and sages that the God has sent. No, he says, I'm the God who's been sending all the prophets and sages. And he says, to prove it, to prove that that's how he understood, every prophet

and every religious teacher and every sage and every wise man or woman who's ever lived always said, thus saith the Lord. I defy you to find a place where Jesus ever says that. He never says that. Can you believe it? All Jesus ever says is over and over again, he says, truly, truly, I say unto you. Jesus' self-consciousness is so off the map, so over the top, it's very clear that he is absolutely saturated, so even his off-handed comments, even his footnotes, even his sidebars, everything he says assumes that he is the uncreated, beginningless, transcendent,

eternal, creator and judge of the universe. And what are you going to do about that? Do you know what that means? In New York City, we constantly have people who say, oh, I believe that Jesus is a teacher, but I can't believe what they say about him being the unique divine son of God. Well that shows, if you say that, that you've never listened to any of his teaching because his teaching is based in his claim.

Right here. All of his teaching about the Sabbath. You like it? Fine, it's based on him being Lord of the Sabbath. He's on the source of the Sabbath. I'm the one who invented the Sabbath. I'm the one who created the world and then rested on the seventh day.

That's what he's saying. And so if you just say, well, I believe he's a teacher, but I can't accept all those incredible claims about him being the son of God, it means that you haven't ever read any of his teaching, because his teaching's rooted in that, and that means either, well, this is what N.T. Wright puts it. Here's how he puts it.

He says, how can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human, that the fire has become flesh, that life capital L itself has walked into our midst? Christianity either means that or it means nothing. It is the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality in the world or it is a complete sham and nonsense. Most people unable to cope with saying either of those things are condemned to live in the shallow world in between.

And he's right, because if you have a shred of personal integrity, you'll know that anybody who makes claims like this, you can't like. Either he's a wicked or a lunatic person and you should have nothing to do with him or he is who he says he is and your whole life has to revolve around him and you ought to throw everything at his feet and say command me. Or let me, not to put too fine a point on it, do you live in that sort of misty world between that Ante-right

is talking about? He says that no one with integrity can live in. Do you pray to Jesus sometimes? Maybe not a lot, but sometimes when you're in trouble you pray to Jesus and then sometimes you kind of ignore him because you get busy and then sometimes you pray. Is that right for you? Listen, either he can't hear you because he's not who he says he is, or else how dare you check in occasionally with this person. You can't just pray to Jesus occasionally. Either he can't hear you, he's not who he says he is, or else he's got to be the still point in your turning world.

He's got to be the thing around which your entire life revolves. See the lordness of him. But secondly, see the Sabbathness of him. When he says, I'm the lord of the Sabbath, he says, I can give you rest. What does that mean? Well, listen, two or three years ago, there's a lot we could say about what it means to get, to obey what the Bible says about putting a limit around your work and making sure you rest. Three years ago or two years ago, I was going through the book of Luke and we got to the parallel passage, the same basic passage, and that night or day I expounded more on what does it mean to obey what the Bible says about work and rest. Tonight what we're doing is we're looking more

about what this passage tells us about Jesus, not so much about how we ought to be living. But let me just put it like this. When the Bible calls you to rest, there are two levels. The first level is you need to take time off. You've got to have physical and mental time off from your work. But there's another level of rest that I'd just like to call you to here as we conclude our sermon. There's a deeper level of rest. When God, at the end of Genesis 1, when God created the world, it says he rested from his work. What does that mean? Does God get tired? No, God wasn't tired. So if God wasn't tired, how could he rest?

And the answer is, God, to rest is to be so satisfied with your work, so utterly satisfied with your work that you can leave it alone. Because when he got done creating the world, what did he say? It is good. He rested, What does it mean to rest? It means to be so satisfied with something that you can walk away from it. You can say, I can leave it go, I can leave it down. I'm that satisfied with it. I'm that happy with it.

Only when you say, it is finished. I'm so happy with it, I'm so satisfied. It is finished. Can you walk away? You know that story about, it's a very, very interesting movie, it was a great movie actually, Chariots of Fire, because it was about a true story about two Olympians, I guess 1920 something Olympics, and one of the interesting things was that one of the Olympians was a kind of a Christian, a Scottish Christian, and he wouldn't run on the Sabbath. He wouldn't run on Sunday. And so he lost out on a gold medal. Remember that?

But what's intriguing, what's great about the movie is that at the one level, taking a day off, rest, is what the movie's about. But the movie pulled it down another level and contrasted Harold Abrams with Eric Liddell, who is the Christian. And Harold Abrams and Eric Liddell were both trying very hard to win gold medals. But Harold Abrams was doing it out of a need to prove himself. There's a place where he actually says, when the gun goes off and he sees he's got nine or ten seconds to run his sprint, he says, I've got ten seconds to justify my existence. He's trying to prove himself. Eric Liddell simply wanted to please the God who he believed already accepted him. That's why in one place he says to his sister,

he says, God made me fast and when I run I feel his pleasure. In other words, Harold Abrams was weary even when he rested and Eric Liddell was rested even when he was exerting himself. Why? Because there's a work underneath our work that we really need rest from. For almost all of us, unless God comes into our life, we're working and we're doing things to prove ourselves, to convince ourselves against God, others, and ourselves that we're doing things to prove ourselves, to convince ourselves against God, others, and ourselves that we're good people. And that work is never over unless we rest in the gospel.

Because at the end of creation, Genesis, the Lord said, it is finished so he could rest. But on the cross, at the end of redemption, Jesus said, it is finished that we could rest. Because when Jesus said it is finished, what was finished? Here's what Jesus is saying. The work underneath your work, the real weariness,

the thing that really makes you weary, which is this need to prove yourself, because you're not satisfied with who you are. You're never satisfied. It's never good enough. You keep working. He says, I have completed that work. I have lived the life you should have lived.

I've died the death you should have died. If you rest in my finished work, then you know that God is satisfied with you, and you can be satisfied with life. And then you have the deep, deep rest. You might call it the REM rest. You know there's a kind of sleep that you don't get rapid eye movement sleep, you wake up exhausted. And I want you to know that you can take all the vacations in the world, but

if you don't have the deep REM sleep of the soul, resting in what Jesus Christ did on the cross, because on the cross he experienced the restlessness of separation from God, that we could have the deep rest of knowing that he loves us now, that our sins have been paid for. And as a result, because Jesus said it is finished, we can rest in his finished work and we can rest indeed. That's what he offers you. Listen, one of the things I think is most interesting, early Christians in Rome would have been, had neighbors, and can you imagine this kind of conversation? This is what, this

is really a conversation that could have easily happened. The neighbor says, oh, you're a Christian. That's great. I love religion. All the pageantry. That's really wonderful. Where do you Christians go to temple? Where's your temple? And the Christian would have said, we don't have a temple. Jesus is our temple, see? He's fulfilled it. He's the final temple, we don't need temples anymore.

And the neighbor would say, well, you have no temple? Well, where do your priests operate? We don't have any priests, says the Christian. Jesus is our priest, he's the final priest, you see. He's put priests out of business. We don't need any mediator. He's the mediator. No temple, no priests. Well, where in the world do you do your sacrifices? Where do you do your rituals, the things that make you acceptable to God? And the Christian says, Jesus is our sacrifice, so we don't have any more sacrifices. And finally, the neighbor says, what kind of

religion is this? And the Christian would say, it's no kind of religion at all. Because we didn't get a religion, we got a person. You see, we don't have a God so high up there that we need a religion to sort of get in connection with him. Come in God, come in. He came to us. He died for us. He came into our midst. And now we don't have a religion, we have a person. Christianity should be so different than religion, is it? No, but it can be for you. Because the gospel can create communities, it can create churches, it can create people that are so utterly different that they have a deep rest of grace in their lives. That'll make us different. Let's pray. Our Father, thank you for giving us the deep rest that comes through Jesus Christ,

who died on the cross, saying, it is finished, so we can be, we can know you're satisfied with us, and so we can pick up and leave our work and leave our pursuits and all the things that can make us so weary and deep down inside know that because of his finished work we can truly rest. Lord we do not want anymore to live lives of anxiety, of self-condemnation, of condemning others. We want to have that life of grace. We want to have our whole lives revolve around you and we pray that you would help us through what we've learned tonight to do it through Jesus. In His name we pray, amen.

Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel in Life Podcast. We hope that today's teaching encouraged you and helped you have a deeper understanding of God's Word. You can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great gospel-centered content by Tim Keller, visit GospelinLife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 2006. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.