It was Saturday in Nazareth. The Sabbath Day. And the faithful sons of Abraham gathered where they did every Sabbath. They gathered at the synagogue. They were in the right place! Here in the synagogue the scrolls of the Old Testament, what they called the tanakh, were read and expounded. Here they heard the Word of Jehovah. In the synagogue they would hear the prophecies of the Messiah who was to come and bring salvation. Indeed, they were in the right place! Because of the Word of God present there the synagogue was the gate to heaven!

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

As the apostle Paul neared the end of his letter to the Philippians, he wrote, And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)  Have you ever paused to consider Paul’s description of the peace of God?  He says this peace “transcends all understanding.”  He is saying that the peace of God is something that defies logic.  It cannot be reduced to simple syllogisms.  It cannot be explained by way of deductive or inductive reasoning.