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The Innocent King for the Guilty Rebel | John 18:38–19:19 | #Faith4TodayPodcast · #Faith4TodayPodcast

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In John 18 and 19, we witnessed the greatest exchange in
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history. The innocent king traded for a
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guilty rebel. Jesus stands before pilot,
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silent yet sovereign, while Barabbas, A murderer, walks
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free. But this wasn't political chaos.
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It was divine redemption. The Son of the Father takes the
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place of the rebellious son of Israel, just like he takes our
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place. In this episode of the Faith for
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Today podcast, we're going to explore Jesus the surrender.
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It wasn't a loss, but it was love in motion as the cross
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wasn't the end of Christ story, it was the beginning of our
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freedom. Let's go.
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Well, welcome to episode 47 of the Faith for Today podcast.
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My name is Matthew. I'm your host, and I'm thrilled
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that you are joining us today. Whether you're listening on
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Spotify, YouTube, or Apple podcast.
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Our hope on the Faith for Today podcast is to help you move
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beyond inspiration in a message into integrating the truth into
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your everyday life of faithfulness and loyalty to
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Jesus the King. Hey, we are passionate about
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this and I really do hope these have been helpful as we explore
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concepts from a message a little bit deeper each week, I'll kind
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of recap the message, kind of share some bonus content, and
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then get into some responses to a few questions each week.
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So let's jump into the recap in In this message, we looked at
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the end of John 18. In the beginning of John 19,
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where Jesus finishes his trial, gets beaten, flogged, and then
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ultimately crucified, finalizing it all by saying it is finished.
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We see in this text one of the most powerful exchanges in all
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of Scripture. The innocent king traded for a
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guilty rebel. Jesus, the sinless son of the
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Father, stands before Pilate, accused of crimes that he never
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committed, while Barabbas, a violent revolutionary and
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murderer, awaits his rightful punishment.
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Did the people cry out for Barabbas to be freed, for Jesus
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to be, and Jesus to be crucified?
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In that moment, the beloved son is exchanged for an estranged,
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guilty son. Even Barabbas name Son of the
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Father, which is what Barabbas means, points to the deeper
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truth that the true Son of the Father, Jesus, takes the place
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of the rebellious sons and daughters of the Father.
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That's all of us, just as Jesus continues to take our place
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again and again. Now this was more than a
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political maneuvering or mob manipulation.
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It was a divine portrait of redemption.
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A new Passover was unfolding. The Lamb of God would die so the
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sons and daughter of God could go free.
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Jesus death wasn't a loss of control, it was an act of
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willing surrender. He wasn't a victim of Rome's
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power or or pilots politics. He was a voluntary substitute
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who laid down his life in obedience to the Father's will.
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Like the greatest stories we love.
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Whether it be Aslan's sacrifice on the table or Katniss Everdeen
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standing and saying I volunteer as tribute.
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The hero here gives himself so another person can live.
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Only this time it's not fiction, it's Jesus being redeeming us.
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He bought us back from curse of sin, from the slavery of
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darkness and sway we were under, and He completed every covenant
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requirement. So His final words, it is
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finished, still ring true today. The cross wasn't just the end of
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His suffering, it was the beginning of our freedom.
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And now we live not as people freed from God, but His sons and
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daughters, freed for Him to love and serve and walk in the
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redemption He purchased once and for all.
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It was the greatest exchange of all time.
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And I'm so, so thankful for Jesus.
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All right, let me get into a little bit of bonus content.
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One of the first things that I wanted to talk about was in in
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John 19. One of the things that is clear
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and evident is John includes some some key details about the
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crucifixion and about the whole process that help demonstrate
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and help us to see Jesus's humanity.
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There is no doubt that John writes for for complete reasons
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to make sure we understand Jesus is the divine Son of God.
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But he also under wants us to understand that Jesus was fully
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human, the divinity, the what was called the, the hypostatic
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union. This understanding of Jesus
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being perfectly God and perfectly man, fully God, fully
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man, this hypostatic union. It's a theological kind of
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terminology, if you will. But John includes some things to
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help us understand #1 Jesus was human, right?
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Blood and water flowed from his side.
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When you read into the account, he, he said I am thirsty, right?
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Like he is thirsty. His mouth was parched.
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Then there was the human side where we didn't read it on
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Sunday, but there's a part in John 19 where Jesus looks at
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John and says, John, this is now your mother.
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Mother, this is now your son telling John, John, will you
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take care of my mom? I need you to from here on out,
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take care of her. And these are human elements,
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human parts of the person of of Jesus.
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And he is fully, fully, fully man.
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He was human, he agonized it. It's not that the because he was
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God, the somehow the, the spikes on his head or the nails in his
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hand like that hurt less. No, it was a very human
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experience and much of what his body went through was a human
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experience and an expression. And so you find that throughout
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this this text. And so I think it's important to
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note that Jesus like died died, he like human died, like he, he
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experienced human death. He submitted himself to this,
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this agony, and then he went through it all.
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And so I that was really interesting that John included
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that that detail. Now in the second thing I want
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to point out is that in the same time John illustrates in this
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chapter that Jesus was divine, he said things like no one takes
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my life. At the very end, it said that he
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gave up his spirit and because he gave up his spirit, they
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didn't have to come and break his legs.
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In other words, typically in crucifixion, because it's a
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slow, agonizing, suffocating death.
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Many times in order to hasten death, that the soldiers would
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come and break the legs so that you could no longer push up to
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get some air. You could no push up to breathe
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deeply, which would again keep you alive.
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And so in order to accelerate the suffocation, they would
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break your legs. Well, they didn't break Jesus's
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legs because he gave up his spirit, which also fulfilled a
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prophecy that that no bones in his body were broken, which is
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just a, a, a unique like thing. Like that's one of the things
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that, you know, Jesus didn't have control when they were
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going to do that. But Jesus being divine, gave up
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his breath, gave up his spirit, surrendered unto death as his
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last act, declaring it is finish.
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And it illustrates that that he was divine.
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Again, the New Testament writers go to immense lengths to
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articulate the reality that Jesus is God and Jesus was man,
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that he was both the Son of God and the Son of man, that that he
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was both the Son of God and the Son of human right.
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Like he was both divine and human.
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And and that's so incredibly important because only a God man
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could endure with and live spotless and without blame or
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blemish and really could endure and take on himself the sins of
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all of the world, take on himself.
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The real punishment that was necessary to redeem, to pay the
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price that would redeem, that would atone for sinful humanity,
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that the working of evil in our world and bring about redemption
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in that way. And man, it is such a unique
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thing. The last thing that I, I wanted
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to point out was just the the fact that and that Jesus in his
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death, that his body was broken and his blood was poured.
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His blood was poured out. So it's interesting, I was
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thinking about how Jesus took the wine on the sour wine on the
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sponge and it was lifted up as a hyssop branch.
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And the reason that that kind of caught my attention is Psalm 51
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verse 7 says purify me with hyssop and I will be clean, wash
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me and I will be whiter than than snow.
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Exodus 12/22 it says take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the
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blood that is in the basin and brush the lentil and the 2 door
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pros with some of the blood in the basin and none of you may go
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out the door of his house until morning.
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This is the instructions for the first Passover.
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And we see in the first Passover that they they took the blood of
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the lamb, dipped it with a hyssop branch and kind of put it
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over the the doorpost. And hyssop has always been this
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element of cleansing of a purifying of something that is
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that is happening. And I was just thinking about
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the, the mixture of the combination of bread and wine,
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bread and wine, bread and wine. And you have to follow me on
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this. I, I'm not trying to build some
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theological depth on this. I just found it interesting that
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one of the things if, if you've ever done a wine tasting, one of
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the things they say is the best palette cleanser so that you
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could fully taste the full embodiment of, of a wine of the,
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the, the notes of, of a wine is that you would take like a, a
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plain cracker and you would eat it because it would help
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cleanse, kind of cleanse your palate and other other things
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you could do to kind of do a palate cleanse so that you can
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experience the full taste of it. But I just thought it was
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interesting that the, the bread, which in communion represents
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the body of Christ kind of cleanse.
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We take that first and in taking it first, it's almost like we're
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cleansing out some things in our own selves.
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Like there's a there's a wholeness that's happening
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within us so that then we could fully experience the juice.
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We can fully taste the the wine. There's a fullness of that.
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Because I think that when we take the bread, which is an
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embody the body of Christ, it kind of when we embody a life of
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faith as the body of Christ, it allows us to experience a life
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of forgiveness in full. And so the forgiveness that
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comes from the blood or the wine symbolized by the wine is fully
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experienced in an embodied way. I think many of us have hard
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time feeling forgiven. This is where I'm going with
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this. We have a hard time feeling
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forgiven because though we have said the words, Lord forgive me,
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I repent. I'm sorry.
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We never do anything with our lives, with our bodies.
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We never enact our repentance, meaning we never actually do
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anything different. We just keep living our lives.
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So instead of doing something in reverse, so instead of, you
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know, rather than recognizing that the reason we keep cursing
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people is because we keep listening to foul language all
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the time, we just keep apologizing for using bad
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language. We don't change the amount of
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bad language we hear. So, so we're actually not doing
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anything to embody a life of repentance.
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We're just like, Oh yeah, forgive me that one.
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And then we just keep going in the same, same direction.
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Take take to take lying, for example, we we say, oh, Yep,
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sorry, sorry, sorry, I lied. We don't really go any further
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to try to build back up the walls to protect us from it.
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We don't sexual sins, right? We don't we don't take a
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necessary action to avoid the the temptations or to to live
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beyond the temptations or to share it with other people.
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We don't even confess it to other people.
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We just kind of like try to self willpower clean it all up and we
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don't really rebuild the ruins. That's what I Psalm 51.
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I think it's such a beautiful thing because at the end of his
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forgiveness and cleansing, he says now help me rebuild the
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walls. In other words, help me rebuild
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the protective measures to keep the things from getting in.
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And so it's not just that the, the, the, the embodiment of,
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represented in the, the bread allows us to fully experience
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the forgiveness of, of our sins. And so I, I think it's one thing
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to know that we've been forgiven.
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It's another thing to go live like we've been forgiven.
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And so many of us don't live forgiven because we, we don't
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really change in our repentance and move in those those things.
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I was reading some commentaries this week on this and, and it
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said this interesting about like the idea of being clean and
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free, clean and free in union with Jesus.
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Like we don't really think about receiving God's mercy in a way
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that moves us into deeper union with him.
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We just kind of keep living our lives by ourselves rather than
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drawing deeper into union with him.
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It said this it said we have been clean and freed to be in
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union with him. That's the whole point.
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He took our place. He was condemned for us.
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He is our representative man. He died the righteous for the
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unrighteous that he might quote UN quote, bring you to God
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first. Peter 318 In other words, that
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the reason his body was broken is so that our forgiveness could
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be found. We could fully experience the
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benefit, the taste of forgiveness, which is found in
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union with God. In other words, like we get, we
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come to a point where we repent, we we get forgiveness, we ask
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God, we repent, we we confess the synagogue, we know he's
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faithful and just to forgive us, but we never from that moment on
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return into deeper union with him.
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We just keep living as if like life hasn't changed.
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And so I think that there's this I'm trying to articulate, like
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when we've been forgiven, one of the ways that we really can
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experience the fullness of our forgiveness is by growing in our
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union with God, growing in our relationship with him.
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Like instead of using God to clean up your mess, you move
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toward God in richer union and relationship with him.
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Instead of just going about your life, go about his life, go
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about growing in him. Listen, Jesus took our place at
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the judgment. He faced our charges and bore
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our judgments so that we can go free.
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And he freed us not to live a life apart from him, but to live
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a life in union with Him. And so the reason he set us free
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isn't because he's so disgusted by sin.
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He set us free so that he could restore union with us.
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And so I think it's important to to remember that one of the ways
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that we fully experience forgiveness is by embodying a
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relationship with God, that union with him, that communion
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with him. And and I just found that that
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is interesting that that the Hyssop branch, which had the
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wine was a cleansing. It was a forgiving and it made a
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way kind of palate cleanse, if you will, so that we could be
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and have that union with have that union with with God.
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There was a kind of a poem I came across this week and it
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said this O Christ, what burdens bowed thy head.
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Our load was laid on thee. Thou stoodst in Sinner stead
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didst bear all I'll for me a victim led.
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Thy blood was shed. Now there's no load for me.
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Remind me of Romans 8 verse one. It says therefore there is now
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no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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In other words, we can embody a life of freedom because he's
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cleansed us, and because he's cleansed us, we can go free.
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We don't have to bear the load of shame because his blood was
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shed for you and for me. And I think it's worth
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meditating on. It's worth moving towards.
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It's worth celebrating who Jesus is and what he's done, what he's
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done for us. All right, that's all that I got
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on the bonus content side this week, but let me take some time
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and answer a couple questions. And they're a bit median, so I'm
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going to take my time on them. The first question is this, Do
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you feel that Pilate was between a rock and a hard place like the
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scripture says? From that moment, Pilate kept
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trying to release him, but the Jews shouted If you release this
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man, you are not Caesar's friend.
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Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.
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It seemed Pilate must have felt terrible to hand Jesus over to
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be crucified. Do you think Pilate ever
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believed in Jesus as the Savior, the Son of God?
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This is an interesting thing, at least with with pontificating.
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I don't want to state anything definitively that the Scripture
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doesn't say or state. I think it's important to not,
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as Tara Lee Kabul would say, not not shout where Scripture
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whispers and not whisper where Scripture shouts.
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And so I want to kind of give some thoughts on this, but try
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not to to shout them because I think there's a little bit of
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unknown because Scripture doesn't reveal certain things.
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It if you read Matthew's gospel account and he records that
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pilot's wife didn't want him to deal with Jesus.
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In fact, had like a terrible dream was up all night saying
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like, I don't have a good thing on this, Like I had a bad dream,
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like have nothing to do with this man.
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And I think that I definitely probably weighed on pilot.
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I don't think he was dismissive of his wife.
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I think that he kind of heard that took that and and he
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himself rocking a hard place. I think he was trying to do
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everything that he could to do the least amount while
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maintaining not just peace, but stay in favor and and have kind
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of the religious leaders owe him.
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I think he was working a political game and that's always
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a balancing act of manipulation, of control, of certain motives
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at play. I think it's a balancing act all
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together. And I think that Pilate probably
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was intrigued by Jesus. Like, I don't know ultimately if
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he believed that Jesus was the son of God, but I think he was
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pretty well intrigued. The fact that this man had done
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so many miracles, so many things and and was flabbergasted that
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this guy. Who is claiming to bring a new
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Kingdom? Jesus was really clear.
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I I my Kingdom is not of this world.
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I think that sparked the Roman curiosity of transcendence
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within him. In other words, this thought of
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like God's coming down to earth was not a foreign concept in
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Pagan ideology. And I think that intrigued him a
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little bit, but I don't, I don't, I don't think that it
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would have kept him from doing what he did.
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I don't think Pilate was close to repenting, renouncing Pagan
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gods and Roman, Roman gods and was willing to follow Yahweh as
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God or even declare that Jesus is God.
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I don't think that he was that he definitely wanted to stay in
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power. He didn't want Caesar to get
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wind of any sense of insurrection.
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And he really liked the money that was being won in tax
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because again, the Passover brought millions of people to of
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tourism. They were gaining immense amount
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of tax right now. It was the most profitable time
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of year in Jerusalem. And so this was his time to just
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keep the economic boom happening.
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Like this is something major. And I think he needed the Jewish
21:34
leaders on his side so he could keep peace and keep that money
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flowing. And I think he was wanting to
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please them just enough, but annoy them so that they were
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would be reminded that he's in power, not them.
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And he was trying to find a solution that did all of those
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things. And I think he felt like he had
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that when he was like, hey, do you want me to release Barabbas
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or this teacher? Thinking for sure, they didn't
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want an insurrectionist released because that brought unnecessary
22:04
retribution on the people because Rome now had to exert
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force. Whenever there's, you know,
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murder and somebody killing Roman soldiers, that's going to
22:16
create a bit more of a of a violent response from Rome
22:20
itself. And so I think Pilate was
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thinking logically, Surely they're not going to want that
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take that risk again, that kind of backfired.
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And so he decided to have him beat and flogged and kind of
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stair stepped his way to the point of crucifixion.
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So I think he was hesitant to crucify.
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I don't think he felt like there was any this man that Jesus
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deserves crucifixion. But at the same time, at the end
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of the day, Pilate was about Pilate, Pilate was about Rome,
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Pilate was about his power and he, I think it's a great wrestle
22:56
point. I think it's a great
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illustration. Pilate illustrates the tension
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that we all face in in trying to resist the yeast of Herod, as
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Jesus put it, these other allegiances, competing
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allegiances in our life for for Pilot, there were competing
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allegiances. He loved his wife, he loved his
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position, he loved the money and he absolutely didn't want to
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lose get on the bad side of Caesar.
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He wanted to please Caesar. And so he was trying to please
23:34
everybody and everything, which ultimately meant he was not
23:38
pleasing to God. And I think that's a a living
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illustration for us. We often want to do anything we
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can to keep our own control in our own life.
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We want to do everything we can to just kind of make everything
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and everyone happy. And we lose, we we lose out when
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we don't recognize that that's actually the yeast of Herod.
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That's, that's us trying to assimilate and take take the
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best of both worlds. That's us trying to be dedicated
24:04
to Jesus and devoted to ourselves.
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And you don't get to live with the idol of self and God being
24:11
God. And they're those are in direct
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opposition. And you see the wrestle with
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Pilate and you saw where he chose what he chose to do.
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He, I think he wanted to find a win.
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He just it didn't, it didn't work the way he wanted to.
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And I think that's one of the reasons why he put the the sign
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on the cross that he did. This is just personal opinion.
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Again, this is not he put it on the cross and the Jews pleaded
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with him to change the sign. He's not our king.
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Don't say he's the king of juju. Say he's something else.
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And pilot's like, no, no, no. The sign says what it says.
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I think Pilot was kind of like putting his thumb back on top of
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the Jewish leaders and says, I know you think I did this for
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you. I didn't.
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I did it for me. And here I'm going to prove it.
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I'm going to give you just enough to make you feel like you
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can trust me. But I also want to exert my
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power in a way to know that you still need to fear me.
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And I think Pilot was smart in that way.
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I think that he was playing a political game in that way.
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And I don't think that he was really willing to give his
25:15
loyalty to Jesus, to give his allegiance to Jesus, to become a
25:19
follower of Jesus in that way. But he at least was sympathetic
25:23
and probably was mesmerized by the miracles that he had heard.
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I mean, that's kind of a showstopper, isn't it?
25:30
I mean, when you see miracles and Lazarus being raised from
25:33
the dead and things like that, I mean, that's, that's pretty
25:36
intriguing. I mean, you don't ever want to
25:38
upset a God. And for Rome, they had many
25:40
gods, so why not add one more to their list in some ways, if
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there's a God that could do that, well, why not add it to
25:47
the list rather than replace all of their gods with Yahweh?
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I don't think Pilate was interested in that.
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So I think there's some some interesting things at play in
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pilot. He is certainly an intriguing
26:00
character, somebody that I have kind of always found interested
26:04
in scripture. And I think he wanted to like
26:07
have win, win. So he washed his hands of this
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guilt, say, hey, it's actually on you, not on me.
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But when it comes to Rome, they're going to see that I did
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everything I needed to do to keep the peace, to keep you
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happy, to keep the tax flowing. And I'm going to win in the end
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with Caesar because I'm doing this.
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And so it's just an interesting, interesting thing all along the
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way. But you can't get away from the
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fact that Pilate many times tried to release Jesus and, and
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at each turn, the Jewish people kept insisting that Jesus be
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crucified, that the people who kept insisting that that the
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crowd had persuasive power. I think that is clear too.
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So there's a lot of interesting things at play, parallels for us
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to learn and examine in our own heart.
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Where are the ways in which we continue to find sway by popular
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opinion? What are the ways in which we
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try to have the best of both worlds without actually giving
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our allegiance to Jesus? What are the ways in which we
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try to live just enough so as to not upset the apple cart of our
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world and our life? And I think all of those things
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are really worth considering in our own in our own hearts.
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Here's the next question. Can you go more in depth about
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how you stated you felt like healing people on Sabbath was
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actually partaking in Sabbath? Yeah.
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So what I said was I don't feel like Jesus violated the Sabbath
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by healing people. And in so doing, I think that he
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actually was helping people experience Sabbath the way it
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was originally intended to be experienced.
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Meaning Sabbath is an opportunity for us to find
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wholeness within ourselves. Sabbath is an opportunity to
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stop striving and start to experience delighting, renewing,
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trusting to experience a rhythm of renewal and worship.
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That's what Sabbath is. That's what it's for.
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And, and I talked about that because one of the kind of
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claims and accusations against Jesus that he violated the
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Sabbath and that he claimed to be gone, both of which I think
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are true. I think he did indeed do some
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things on Sabbath that they thought was incorrect, which
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were man made laws on top of what God had said in the Old
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Testament. You're not going to find any.
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I don't think you're going to find any commandment that says
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on the Sabbath. You can't find healing like
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that's just not there on the Sabbath.
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You can't pray for another person or on the Sabbath you
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can't eat. It was like they wanted to eat.
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They were eating the grains. The disciples ate grains of
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heads of grain of wheat and they're like that's harvesting.
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No, it's not. It's eating.
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And so like, it's kind of one of those man made laws that are way
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out in front of what God's actual law is, kind of a fence
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law. But I said that the Sabbath,
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that Jesus was helping people experience what Sabbath was
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always meant to be. And one of the reasons I said
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that is #1 Jesus said Sabbath was made for man, not man for
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the Sabbath. In other words, Sabbath wasn't
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meant to be some dutiful requirement.
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Rather, it's an invitation to experience delight and
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restoration for our souls. Sabbath was a moment to stop and
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be with God, to allow the presence and delight and trust
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of God to be on us, to be upon us, which is what happens when
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we have an encounter with Jesus. The presence of God comes upon
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us and it heals, restores, saves, delivers who we are.
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It sets us free from us, sets us free from the slavery of time,
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sets us free from the slavery of of perfection and production.
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It's it's us experiencing true Sabbath and Jesus healed people,
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set them free from the things that limited their life.
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I think that's what Sabbath was always intended for us to do.
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When we stop and delight in God, when we stop and rest, when we
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stop and worship, what are we doing?
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We're allowing our souls to be restored.
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We're allowing our minds to be renewed.
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We're allowing the very presence of God to come and just hover
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and rest on us. And I think Jesus healed.
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It was his presence resting on a person, bringing them wholeness.
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I think Sabbath is a gift from God to humanity to help us live
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more whole, complete and healthy lives.
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Well, that's what Jesus did on the Sabbath.
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When he healed on the Sabbath, he helped people experience
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healing wholeness so that they can find fullness of life.
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That's what the Sabbath was for. That's the benefit of the
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Sabbath. And I go all the way back to
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Genesis with this because when it said God rested and and
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called it Sabbath and said God rested, he ceased working and he
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stopped on that day. He stopped, stopped what I think
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he came and he stopped and he was present on earth that day.
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In fact, another kind of theme of Scripture is God's resting on
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something. Rest is a word that can refer to
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in, in the Hebrew, it's a new ah, it's a rest.
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And the word can refer to coming to rest upon something either
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literally or figuratively. For example, the ark rested upon
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Mount Ararat, Genesis 84. It came and stopped somewhere.
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The locust settled upon the land in Egypt.
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Exodus 10 and 14 and the Spirit of God rest on individuals.
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Numbers 11, Isaiah 11, He comes and He rests upon.
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I think when scripture says that on the 7th day God rested, He
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stopped. He stopped and He just remained
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somewhere. It's not that He just stopped
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from working and doing creation. It's that he came and he
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stopped. In fact, in in the very next
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chapter in Genesis 3, we see that that that God would walk.
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Adam would walk in the cool of the day with with God.
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In other words, like God and humanity were were in were in
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union. They were together.
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God rested on it. God blessed the Sabbath.
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He put his blessing, his presence.
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His face was toward the Sabbath, towards His people on the
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Sabbath. Exodus 20 and verse 11 says
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this. For the Lord made the heavens
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and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days.
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Then He rested on the 7th day. That word rested is the word
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Nua. It's not the word for Shabbat
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meaning stop. It's the word rested as in Nua.
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He rested on the 7th day. Therefore the Lord blessed the
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Sabbath and declared it holy. Why did the Lord declare it
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holy? Because His presence was there,
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because He was present on the Sabbath, therefore it is holy.
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So when Jesus was healing on the Sabbath, He was present as God
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and bringing healing and wholeness to individuals and
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they were experiencing true blessing of Sabbath.
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It was a blessed thing, not a burdensome thing.
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And the very presence of Jesus was blessing people on the
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Sabbath and they were being healed.
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They, they, they were no longer lame.
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People were being satisfied and comforted and, and found
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wholeness. That's what Sabbath is for.
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And that's what we experience even today when we experience
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His presence. It's Him resting on us, coming
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and inhabiting the praises of his people, coming and sitting
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and thrown in that place, coming and just resting upon a people,
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resting upon a house, resting upon a family.
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He rested on the 7th day and therefore the Lord blessed it,
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Exodus 20 says, and declared it holy.
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Why? Because the Lord had descended
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yet again upon it. It's an opportunity for us to
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come and encounter Jesus, us to encounter God.
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That's what the Sabbath is for. The Sabbath isn't just about not
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doing your works and your chores.
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Sabbath isn't just about not going into the office.
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Sabbath isn't just about not checking your emails.
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Sabbath isn't just about not doing something.
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Sabbath is about experiencing someone.
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It's about experiencing God. It's about letting God come and
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rest on your day, rest on your life, rest on your soul, renew,
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restore, redeem, rejuvenate, add life and vigor and allow you to
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experience rich delight. Listen in His presence,
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Scripture says is fullness of joy.
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At His right hand are pleasures forevermore.
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In other words, there's something so delighting about
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being in the presence of God, being in the union with God,
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experiencing his presence personally, individually, and as
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a family, which is what Sabbath is for.
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Sabbath was a rhythmic time of stopping and renewing and
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worshipping, of turning your attention to God for a day.
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Instead of having your attention be all of life, all of busy
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work, you stop and you turn your attention to God and you give
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gratitude for experiencing good food and great drink and the
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companion of wonderful friends and laughter and hobbies that
35:45
you enjoy and his creation and, and rest and sleep and, and
35:49
allowing your bodies to be caught up and reset for the week
35:53
ahead. That's what Sabbath is for.
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It's US experiencing God's love and his presence coming and
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resting on US. One more Scripture, Numbers 1125
36:04
and 26, says Then the Lord descended on the cloud and spoke
36:08
to him. He took some of the Spirit who
36:11
was on most, and placed the Spirit on the 70 elders.
36:15
As the Spirit rested on them. They prophesied, but they never
36:21
did it again. Two men had remained in the
36:24
camp, one man named El Dad and the other Med Dad, and the
36:28
Spirit rested on them. They were among those listed but
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had not gone out to the tent and they prophesied in the camp.
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In other words, the Spirit comes and rests on them.
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This is a foreshadowing of the Holy Spirit coming down on
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Pentecost to rest. Remain, fill every believer who
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would receive the gift of the Spirit.
36:51
God rested just like he would rest and come and sit and thrown
36:56
on the tab in the Tabernacle, His cloud.
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The cloud would descend and rest.
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The cloud would descend and it would stop.
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It would cease from coming down. It would stop at a certain
37:10
point. It would stop on the mountain.
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It didn't go all the way down. It stopped on the mountain.
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Mountains are the places of encountering God.
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So when Jesus healed, I think what He did on the Sabbath was
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Him helping people experience true Sabbath, real Sabbath, God
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coming down and resting on them in a way that restores their
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body, restore their soul, help them to be seen and loved and
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cared for and experience the fullness of God's life.
37:39
That's what Sabbath is for, to experience the fullness of life
37:43
and find enjoyment as a way of honoring God, taking delight in
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all that God has provided rather than striving for more of what
37:52
we are trying to provide for ourselves.
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That's the beauty of Sabbath. That's why Sabbath is for.
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It is a gift for man, not man enslaved to God on something.
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And I think Jesus lived out the the perfect embodiment of what
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Sabbath was made for and designed for.
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And I think it's just a powerful motif and theme in Scripture to
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recognize how God comes and rests doesn't mean that God took
38:19
a nap. It means that God just stopped.
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Where did he stop? He stopped and he was among Adam
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and Eve. He stopped and He was among
38:28
humanity, and He stops and He's among us today.
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But in order for us to experience Him, we have to stop
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focusing on ourselves, stop trying to achieve in ourselves,
38:40
stop giving our affection to other things, and instead give
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all of our attention, all of our affection, and have activity
38:48
that moves us in the direction of God.
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And in so doing, we experience His presence.
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Why? Because God comes where He's
38:55
wanted. And when we draw near to Him, He
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draws near to us. And when He draws near to us, we
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experience his peace, we experience his wholeness, we
39:05
experience his joy, we experience his healing, his
39:08
restoration, a renewal in who we are.
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And Sabbath is that gift for us. And Jesus showed us how to
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receive a gift on the Sabbath, how to encounter the presence of
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God resting on a life. And I thought that was a
39:23
beautiful kind of thing that Jesus didn't.
39:27
And it's kind of something new that I just kind of noticed as I
39:29
was studying and why I don't think Jesus violated what
39:34
Sabbath was intended. He may have been contrary or
39:38
unpredicted compared to what the Jewish leader said was law, but
39:42
it did not break God's law. And so I think in that he
39:47
fulfilled all of the law and remained blameless and upright
39:51
in his in his life. Friends, I hope that has helped
39:55
been helpful for you today. Hoped all of the content and the
39:59
thoughts and the scriptures are helping you to have faith for
40:03
today. Would you share this episode?
40:05
Would you make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss
40:07
future episodes? And more than anything, would
40:10
you just know that you are loved this week?
40:13
We'll see you soon, friends.