It says in verse 16, "Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because
he had done these things on the Sabbath day.
But Jesus answered them, 'My father worketh hitherto, and I work.'
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him."
This is the narrator of the book speaking.
The Jews sought more to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said
also that God was his father, making himself equal with God.
Now that's the narrator speaking.
Let me give you a principle of Bible interpretation.
When the narrator is speaking, the narrator is always right.
Now the Bible will sometimes record characters who make a wrong statement.
I mean, the Bible records what the devil says.
The Bible records what Job's three friends say.
The Bible records people saying things that are wrong or lying.
But when the narrator of the Bible is speaking, that's the Holy Ghost narrating the Bible
to us, we know that his record is true.
The narrator says in John 5, 18, "The Jews sought more to kill him because he not only
had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with
God.
Jesus said to them, 'My Father worketh hitherto and I work.'"
I work.
Now why did he say that?
Now let me explain it to you and we're going to see this in Hebrews 4 very clearly.
Because of the fact that the Sabbath pictures the fact that Christ does all the work for
salvation and we just rest in the finished work of Christ.
He does the work and we rest in his finished work.
That's why when Jesus Christ died on the cross he was dead for three days and three nights.
Guess what those three days were?
The first day he was dead was the 14th day of the month Abib, the Passover.
Guess what happens on the Passover?
You're not supposed to do any work.
The second day that Jesus was dead was the 15th day of the month Abib.
Guess what that is?
The Feast of Unleavened Bread and guess what?
You're not supposed to do any work on that day either.
The third day that Jesus was dead was a Saturday or the regular Sabbath day, the 7th day and
guess what?
You're not supposed to do on the Sabbath.
In the Old Testament.
You're not supposed to do any work.
So the first day that Jesus was dead, you don't do any work.
The second day that Jesus is dead, don't do any work.
Third day that Jesus is dead, don't do any work.
Why?
Because Jesus, death and burial and resurrection, He did all the work.
You just sit back and rest as Christ saves you.
Christ does it all.
We don't work our way to heaven, we trust in and rest on the finished work of Jesus
Christ.
That's why Jesus said, "I'm the Lord of the Sabbath."
Now look, if I would have been around in Jesus' day and I started working on the Sabbath,
that would be a sin, wouldn't it?
Because back in the old covenant, they were told, "Do not work on the Sabbath."
So if you were in the old covenant and you worked on the Sabbath, wouldn't that be a
sin?
But why was it not a sin for Jesus to work on the Sabbath?
Because Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and guess what?
He doesn't need to picture like, "Oh, well I'm supposed to rest in someone else's work."
He's the worker.
He didn't rest.
You think he was resting in peace for those three days and three nights?
No, he was paying for our sins.
He was dead for three days and three nights, and he rose again with the keys of hell and
of death.
And he wasn't relaxing down there, friend.
He was doing the work that gets us to heaven.
Jesus did the work to get us to heaven.
We rest in the work.
That's what the Sabbath represents, resting in the finished work of Christ.