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So what do you think of the latest development in the world of work?
We’re used to employers providing gyms and nurseries and canteens and the like so you can build your entire life around your workplace. That’s old hat.
But this year, 2025, is the year when gyms started to add workspaces.
#1
So even if you do somehow manage to sneak away from the office for a quick workout, you feel you have to justify it by doing a couple of hours extra work before you leave.
It seems there’s no escape.
Welcome to the country with one of the longest working weeks in the world. We’re in there at number 4 apparently.
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But is that a problem?
Well, you know the old saying as well as I do.
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All work and no play makes Jack… what?
…
A dull boy.
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And actually it’s true, isn’t it? You go the wedding breakfast and you find you’re sitting next to some actuary who can’t seem to talk about anything beyond the mathematical models for his new mortality tables. And your heart sinks, doesn’t it? We’ve only got to the starter; how am I going to keep up conversation with this guy through to the speeches?
It’s a harsh truth, maybe, but interaction with the wider world beyond work, beyond study, does makes us just more interesting people to be around.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
But that’s not the only issue with overwork. I mean, there are worse things than being uninteresting. The truth is that all work and no play makes Jack an ill boy.
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Last year, March 2024, the man who is possibly Britain’s most prolific screenwriter and playwright – James Graham – came out with a bit of a revelation. His relationship with work was so problematic he’d needed to join the 12-step recovery program Workaholics Anonymous. And that revelation shone a new light on to the dangerous reality of work addiction in the UK.
Having a compulsive tendency to overwork is a big deal. We used to make light of it. ‘Oh he’s a bit of a workaholic, Jim is’. We’d say it with a smile on our faces, like it was just some harmless quirk.
But no more. Because now we know: you’re more likely to suffer from stress, heart disease, muscular pain, relationship strains, and all sorts of other things - if you overwork. Marriages involving a workaholic are twice as likely to break down. And the WHO estimates around ¾ million deaths every year are associated with long working hours.
All work and no play makes Jack an ill boy.
But more even than that, all work and no play makes Jack a foolish boy!
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I don’t know if you’ve ever filled in a job application form and you get to that question: ‘what is your biggest weakness?’
What do you say? You think about it, then the perfect answer comes to you. You start typing. ‘My greatest weakness is that I just work too hard! I lack perspective. I find I care so deeply about the profits of the company I work for that I just can’t tear myself away from the office!’
What a killer answer, you think. Nailed it.
But then the rejection email comes. And you wonder why. And the reason, of course, is that employers have figured it out. They know that – even if it were true – more hours at the desk does not necessarily translate into greater productivity.
The student who works 24/7 looks at her friend who heads to church on Sunday, takes time off, does some exercise, has a social life – and gets frustrated, because her friend does better in the exams. Why is that? Doesn’t make sense! It’s not fair.
Why is it? It’s simply that in the long run more work doesn’t necessarily mean more productivity. Often it’s just the opposite.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, an ill boy and a foolish boy.
And – just to be absolutely clear – it’s exactly the same for Jill too. It’s not just a male thing.
But might overwork – especially perhaps on a Sunday – also make Jack -and Jill – disobedient to God?
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That’s what we’re going to be thinking about this morning as we turn to the fourth commandment:
Ex 20:8 – ‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.’
Let’s try and unpick the Bible’s teaching on this business of remembering the Sabbath in three short statements:
First, Sabbath rest is a badge of God’s people
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I’ve got a lanyard here. It’s a University of Southampton staff pass. It’s not mine – I had to ‘borrow’ it for the morning. We haven’t got to the 8th commandment yet, so I’m OK.
But you can see what this lanyard does. It acts as ID. It identifies my wife as an authorised person to hang out in that off-limits area at the back of the Hartley Library where she spends her days. She’s part of that inside crowd. The rest of us – we’ve got no hope. But she wears this and she’s in.
That’s what the Sabbath was for the people of Israel. It wasn’t really about the exact things you could and couldn’t do on a Saturday. It was more a lanyard, a badge.
The very fact that Israel observed it marked them out from the other nations as the people of God.
Later on in the Old Testament, the prophets had some fairly strong words to say about Israel. And again and again, Sabbath-breaking was right up around the top of the list of their complaints. In fact Moses himself later in this book
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(Ch.31) said anyone who breaks the Sabbath needs to be cut off from the people.
And of course we find this all a bit strange. Why would the way you structure your week be such a big deal? Surely there are a loads of things which would be bigger issues than that?!
Well the reason is exactly this. This was a primary mark of being part of the people of God. Breaking the sabbath – that was like – well, in library terms, shall we say – it wasn’t like talking in a silent area. That just gets you a hard stare from people around you. No it’s more like the Southampton Bagpipes Society turning up there, jumping over the barriers, frightening off the readers and holding their Monday evening practice there. That gets you escorted from the premises by security. You don’t belong here!
‘Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy’.
The Sabbath rest was a basic form of ID for Israel.
And it is still so for Christians today. The book of Hebrews was written in the New Testament era and we read even there
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(4:9): ‘There remains… a Sabbath rest for the people of God.’
Now we’ll come back to that verse a little later on, because there’s more to say about it.
But it may be worth thinking just briefly about why God is so keen on his people resting like this.
And actually the Bible gives more than one answer to that question:
For one thing. It honours God the Creator
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If you’ve still got Exodus 20 open, just skip a couple of verses down to verse 11. This is the ‘why’ of the Sabbath rest principle. Verse 11:
11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Do you see what’s going on here? Working 6 days then resting on the 7th day, this holy Sabbath day, is a way of echoing the rhythm of God’s great work – creation.
Remember that, back in Genesis 1?
• Day 1 ‘And God said ‘let there be light’ – it was so
• Day 2 “let there be a vault’ it was so
• Day 3 ‘Let there be land’
• Day 4 ‘Let there be stars’
• Day 5
• Day 6
• Day 7?
God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
That’s the creation pattern.
And sabbath rest for God’s people was a way of identifying with their creator God, paying tribute to him. I’m with him! Like a Saints fan wearing around town the same shirt his team wear on the pitch. I’m with them!
But there’s a second reason too.
It honours God the Rescuer, the redeemer
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When the ten commandments are repeated for the next generation, in Deuteronomy 5, it’s interesting. There’s a second explanation for the Sabbath. You can turn to it if you like. It’s on page 184.
Deuteronomy 5. Verse 12. Pretty much the same commandment, very similar words. But an extra motivation. Verse 15.
15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore… the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
The point seems to be that the movement from the place of slavery (Egypt) to the place of God’s provision (the Promised Land) was - in a way - a movement from work to rest.
• Slavery - work, fending for themselves
• Promised Land – rest, ‘The place where God provides.
The whole of Israel would go through this work-to-rest experience.
And keeping the Sabbath for generations to come would be a way of taking them back to those early days. It was a memory aid, really, for their national rescue. Like Americans celebrating 4th July – Independence Day.
So that’s why the Sabbath was so important for God’s people. It was their ID – a way of identifying with and paying tribute to… the God of creation – and the God of redemption.
So how did they observe it? Second point there.
Sabbath rest for God’s old people meant a new rhythm
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I don’t know if you use a week-planner of some kind, or an online calendar. I have a whole bunch of Google Calendars in different colours which let me know what’s coming up, where I’m meant to be and so on. You’ve probably got your system.
For ancient Israel, it was relatively simple. Every week was the same.
• 6 days of work.
• 1 day of rest.
You can see the basic week-planner in the middle two verses there. Exodus 20:9-10.
9 Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.
In fact, over in ch23, there’s even a sabbath for the land.
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Every seventh year, it gets to have a rest after all the work it’s done.
The Sabbath was a dramatic change of pace. Those ripe fruit that needed picking stayed on the tree. Those dirty clothes that needed washing stayed in the laundry basket. It all stopped.
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I mean obviously there were exceptions. Children needed feeding. Cows needed milking. Wars needed fighting. But basically it all stopped one day in seven.
Now that may not seem so strange to us. Because of course, this pattern entered into the Roman empire when the Emperor Constantine was converted. And it’s been part of Western society ever since. We’re still used to lots of shops and banks being shut one day in 7, and bus companies offering cut down services one day in 7, and so on. But it all started with Exodus 20 and the command here. The ancient Egyptians worked to a 10-day week; the Mayans went for a 13-day week. Rome was actually on 8 days – for a bit. The 7-day week, and the pattern of stopping for one day in 7 starts right here.
That was how the old people of God – Israel – were to enact the principle of Sabbath rest. They were to set apart that one day in seven for zero-activity. That’s what the word ‘holy’ means – it means ‘set apart’. Keeping holy the Sabbath very naturally meant making it different from the others. Stopping work.
But what about God’s new people? Let’s move on to the third key pointer here:
Sabbath rest for God’s new people means a new relationship
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I think it’s fair to say: earlier generations of Christians had a tendency to read the fourth commandment in quite a flat way. That is, they would sometimes treat it as applying directly to Christians and the way we treat our Sundays. If you’ve seen ‘Chariots of Fire’, you may think of Eric Liddell and that famous stance he took of refusing to run his race in the 1924 Olympics because they were held on a Sunday. It was his ‘here I stand’ moment.
And we think: yes, go Eric!
But is that actually a responsible way of reading the fourth commandment?
It’s certainly an understandable way. The other 9 of the 10 commandments are taken up by the New Testament and they are applied to Christians in a straightforward kind of way. In fact they’re sharpened. ‘Don’t murder’ becomes ‘don’t even get angry with people – because that’s murder in the heart, as it were. Do you see? 9 of the commandments carry over to the Christian era in similar terms to the pre-Christian era.
So it’s understandable that somebody might just fill in the gap and lump in Sabbath rest with the others, and make it about a timetable.
But the reality is: the New Testament actually applies the Sabbath-rest principle very differently.
And you see that both negatively and positively.
Negatively, the “one special day in 7 rule” is effectively taken apart by the apostle Paul.
So in Romans 14, Paul is addressing a situation of disagreements in church. Between Jewish Christians and Gentiloe Christians.
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So he says – verse 5 – ‘One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind’. In other words, there’s no rule here; just go with what you think. Whatever!’
Well, that sounds like a very liberal-minded approach. How does he get there?
In Colossians 2, he says a similar thing, but this time he gives the reason. You’re welcome to turn it up if you like. It’s page 1183 in the church Bibles. Let me read Colossians 2:16
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
Why not? Verse 17. Here it is:
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17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
However clear the Sabbath rule is – or was – it was actually just a shadow designed to focus us in on the real thing.
I don’t know if you’ve seen that picture of camels in the desert taken by the paraglider-photographer George Steinmetz.
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As you look at the picture, you find yourself looking at what are obviously dark camel shapes trapsing along. But it takes you a little while before you realise what you’re actually looking at. What your eyes are drawn to is not camels at all. You’re looking at camel shadows. If you go right down to the bottom of each one, down the legs you’ll see a roughly horizontal white-ish line. That’s the real camel. The big black shape is just a shadow.
If I zoom in a bit,
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you can maybe see it more clearly.
Do you see? Back to the original picture again…
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This is obviously evening time, given the angle of the shadows.
The Sabbath was one of a number of institutions and systems in the Old Testament era designed by God to help us see the shape of what we could expect in Christ.
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They’re big and bold but they’re just dark shadows of the real thing.
• The temple - for example – talk about something big and bold! But it was really an elaborate model designed to teach us about Christ and the way he is the meeting place between a holy God and sinful human beings.
• The animal sacrifices: they’re another shadow of Christ, a way of teaching us about the seriousness of sin, and how the death of a substitute could take that sin away
So we don’t focus on the shadow, but on the reality.
And the Sabbath-rest is the same. It’s God’s way of teaching us what we really have in Christ. We have the rest that our burdened souls have been crying out for, the demonstration that it’s not all on us. That we’re not sufficient. That we need something / someone bigger than ourselves to give us our purpose, our meaning.
That is what we have in Jesus Christ.
So don’t focus on the shadow. Focus on that! Focus on him!
In Matthew 11 verse 28, Jesus holds out an offer, which is really the offer of the millennium, the offer of the eon!
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28 ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Do you see what’s going on? That Sabbath rest after 6 days of back-breaking labour – is a picture for us. It’s a physical picture of what we have spiritually in Jesus. Rest for our souls. It’s what the great thinker Augustine was driving in his autobiography 1600 years ago: speaking as though to God, he says ‘our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you’.
So you see for a Christian, keeping the Sabbath is not really to do with your Sunday activity. It’s everything to do with a relationship with Jesus and the way he unburdens us of all the heavy spiritual baggage we would otherwise be dragging around with us.
If you’ve already come to know Jesus, then that relationship is something you already enjoy. At least I hope you’re enjoying it! But the fullness of it is still to come. Which is why the Christian life does need effort. It does need perseverance. Hebrews 4:9 –
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest
We have rest in Jesus already, if we’ve accepted his offer. But the full experience of that rest is still to come.
So that’s what Sabbath rest means for God’s new people: it means a whole new relationship.
There is more to say, though. So as I close, let me say 3 more quick things to help us feel the impact of all this, and maybe clear up some loose ends.
A word on physical rest, a word on Sundays, and a word on spiritual rest.
First, a word on physical rest.
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We need physical and emotional rest. We need it!
Regardless of how the Sabbath applies today, it is still true that all work and no play makes Jack and Jill dull, unwell and foolish.
So please take the rest you need. Take a bit of time every day. Take a day every week. Take a month every year, or whatever your annual leave is. I know projects and deadlines crowd in, but for the sake of those around you, and for the sake of your own health and perspective, be wise. The Sabbath may not be a binding rule for the Christian in terms of timetabling the week – any more than tithing is a binding rule for the Christian. 10% - not 9% or 11%. But the principles of generous giving and sensible rest are good ones.
Second, a word on Sundays.
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The idea of Sundays for Christians – a fixed day when we can rest physically (by not going to work) and recharge emotionally (by unwinding a bit) and focus spiritually (by coming to church) and go forward relationally by spending time with our families or indeed our spiritual family – it’s been a wonderful thing while we’ve had it. It’s a great convenience for us. But it is only that. There’s no command or even pattern in the New Testament of Christians doing any of those things on a Sunday.
If you have to work on Sundays, because you’re a nurse or a shift worker or a retail worker or a church staff member or whatever, please don’t think of that as a failure in some way. But do make sure you prioritise those things at other points: rest, spiritual refocusing, sustaining relationships. For the rest of us who can still do those things on a Sunday, my advice would generally be to combine those things on a Sunday, and protect them as much as you can, but to do so as a matter of wisdom, not regulation.
Third, a word on finding spiritual rest.
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There’ll be some here who even now feel burdened. You feel things just aren’t really making sense right now.
Maybe the shape of your life in general is unsatisfying in some way you can’t quite put your finger on.
Maybe the big-w questions are weighing on you at the moment:
• the ‘why am I here?’ /
• ‘where am I going?’ /
• ‘what’s the point of it all?’
Maybe that’s why you’re here this morning. You’re wondering if you might find an answer or two! Surely someone here’s got something for you?
Well maybe they have. But in the end, you’ll find it doesn’t matter who you ask here; they’ll all ultimately point you away from themselves, and towards – Jesus.
You see, that’s the thing that’s unites all Christians.
It’s the common experience of every one of us that as we’ve opened our Bibles and gazed at this magnetic figure called Jesus, and taken him up on his offer of rest for our souls, that we’ve found he’s already begun to deliver on the offer.
There’s a lightness to our spirits already. And we know that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Before death, after death, for eternity, that promise of an unburdened soul can become a reality. And you could know it, experience it, even today if you would take Jesus up on his offer.
‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’