Part 4
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy!
Exodus 20:8-11
Remember
the Sabbath day and keep it holy. 9 Six days you
shall labor 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, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your
female servant, or your livestock, or your sojourner who is within your
gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh
day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Exodus 20:8-11 MEV
Blue laws —known also as Sunday laws—are laws designed to restrict or ban
some or all Sunday activities for religious standards, particularly the
observance of a day of worship or rest. Blue laws may also restrict shopping or
ban sale of certain items on specific days, most often on Sundays in the
western world.
Jesus
went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. As they went, His disciples began
to pluck the heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they
doing on the Sabbath what is not lawful?” He said to them, “Have you never read
what David did, when he and those who were with him were in need and hungry:
how he went into the house of God, in the days Abiathar was the high priest,
and ate the ritual bread, which is lawful only for the priests to eat, and also
gave it to those who were with him?” Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of
the Sabbath.” Mark
2:23-28 MEV
1. The
Sabbath was not meant to restrict NECESSITIES (vs. 25-26)
And
he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in
need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house
of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and
ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the
priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” Mark 2:25-26
Example: David in fleeing from Saul (I Samuel
21:1-6) took five loaves of the showbread that was to be eaten only by the
priests and gave them to his men. The man of God, David was justified in
breaking the ceremonial law because his need for sustenance was greater than
keeping the ceremonial law. (He broke the ceremonial law not to indulge a lust
but to meet a genuine need) Meeting true human need and compassion takes
precedence over custom, ritual, ceremony and tradition.
Hosea
6:6 "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more
than burnt offerings."
"For
I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt
offerings." Hosea 6:6 MEV
2.
The Sabbath was made to SERVE MAN
not MAN SERVE the day.
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man,
not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27
Sabbath - Shabbat is the original Hebrew word for our
English word sabbath. It means “to cease, to end, to rest.”
How should we observe the Sabbath? How does it apply to us, not apply to us?
Lots of questions emerge from the fourth commandment, so let’s read it
together. Let’s unpack it in order. So, let’s walk through it together:
Exodus 20:8–11: “Remember”—and
the “remember” here is to take something that is from the past so that it would
be living in the present and live on in the future. It’s not just a mental
remembrance; it’s celebrating and modeling that which has gone before us so
that it would have a future.
So, “Remember the Sabbath day.” Sabbath
means cessation of work or rest. “Your day off” would be our sort of common
vernacular for that.
“To
keep it holy.” Holiness is a hugely important concept. The
number one most frequently mentioned attribute of God in the whole Bible is
that he is holy. This means he is other, he’s different from us. So, we’re
sinful, he’s not, all right? We’re created, he’s eternal. We have to learn
things, he knows everything. He’s different from we are, so this concept of
holiness is that six days, we work. We do the same thing, we get up and go to
work. On the seventh day—it’s holy, it’s set apart, it’s different. It’s
different from the other six days.
So, one of the ways you know you’re violating the Sabbath
is if, over and over and over, seven days keep looking alike. If that’s the
case, you’re violating the Sabbath. If six days look alike and one day looks
different, you might be actually obeying the principle of the Sabbath.
“Six
days you shall labor, and do all your work.” Let me unpack this. A
lot of people say, “Oh, this is the commandment about the Sabbath.” It is about
the Sabbath, but it’s also about work, and this keeps us from twin idols. You
remember the first commandment is there’s one God. The second commandment is,
we only worship God—we don’t worship idols. We established that an idol is a
created thing. And some of us worship our work. We worship our job. And we’ll
make fun of the pagans who used to have sacrifices where they’d get an altar,
and they’d lay down a person or an animal, and slaughter it to the gods.
Well, sometimes our god is called “job” and sometimes our
sacrifice is called “health,” “marriage,” “children,” “family,” “church” or our
“day off.” Sometimes we can have job be god and we offer various sacrifices to
appease our god. So, this principle in the fourth commandment keeps us from
worshiping our job or worshiping our comfort.
In (Deuteronomy 5:12-15) the
Lord reminds His people that they had been slaves in Egypt and that He had
brought them out from there. In commanding them to observe the Sabbath, the
weekly rest would remind them of a time when as slaves they were unable to
rest.
This refers to the association between Israel's slavery in Egypt and the
Sabbath. Thus the name for our series:
The Ten Commandments: Set Free to Live Free…
Two of
the greatest needs of man are for rest and worship - neither, of which Israel
was free to do in Egypt.
Quote: Our
hearts are restless until they find rest in You. St. Augustine
God's original intent was for
the Sabbath to be a blessing not a burden. The Sabbath was to benefit man to
help him gain rest and to have a revived sense of God's presence.
"Rest
in the LORD, and wait patiently for him..." Psalms 37:7
3.
The Sabbath is NOT the Lord's Day.
No where in the New Testament
is the Christian commanded to observe the Sabbath. The Sabbath was essentially
Jewish, which explains, its absence in New Testament instructions to
Christians. The Sabbath was the sixth day - began at sunset Friday and ran
through sunset Saturday. The Lord's Day is the first day of the week
corresponding to our Sunday.
You and I can easily overlook
that unless you’ve got some Jewish friends or you’ve been to a place that is,
in large part, Jewish people.
And if you have any Jewish
friends that still really keep the Sabbath in a devout and strict way. They’re
not going to use any electricity, they’re going to use candles or leave the
lights on from the night before. They’re not going to eat any food that they
cooked that day, because they had to prep it the day before to make sure they
weren’t doing any work. They’re not going to travel a long distance. Even some
who are very devout will not open their refrigerator to get a snack unless
they’ve taken the light bulb out, because if you open the door and the light
bulb turns on, that could be a violation of the Sabbath.
We Gentiles don’t get this. Most of us are not really
committed too much of anything with that degree of devotion. It really hit me
when I was in Israel some years ago. When the Sabbath hit, which is Friday
night to Saturday night, sundown to sundown, everything was shut down. You
couldn’t get a cab, businesses were closed, you couldn’t transact business,
nothing could get done because everything literally stopped, and everything
changed.
Example: THE JESUS ELEVATOR
The early church set aside the
Lord's Day as a day of rest, worship, and celebration of Christ's resurrection.
On
the first day of the week, when the disciples came together, to break bread,
Paul, ready to leave the next day, preached to them and continued his message until
midnight. Acts 20:7 MEV
On
the first day of the week let every one of you lay in store, as God has
prospered him, so that no collections be made when I come. 1
Corinthians 16:2 MEV
I
was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a great voice like a
trumpet… Revelation 1:10 MEV
4. Christ
is the LORD of the Sabbath and EVERY day!
Jesus is the great Creator of the universe. All
things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. He
created the heaven and earth and all things in six days. He sanctified the
seventh day and made it the day of rest. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. In
affirming His Deity, Christ declares He is Lord and is greater than the
Sabbath. He therefore has the right to overrule man-made rules and tradition.
Therefore
let no one judge you regarding food, or drink, or in respect of a holy day or
new moon or Sabbath days. These are shadows of things to
come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Colossians 2:16-17 MEV
5.
The rhythm of setting aside a time each week to REST and WORSHIP is biblically sound.
The important thing is that we set aside time for rest and
worship. These are two things we desperately need. As human beings, our Creator
did not design us to work seven days a week. Our bodies and souls both need
rest, and taking off one day out every seven is good for us. Those of us with
workaholic tendencies may find it difficult to get into the habit of a
regularly scheduled day off, but we need it. It should always be something to
which we look forward.
Every day as believers we should take
time to read the Bible, pray, and express our praise to God. But, it is
important to have at least one day in seven, which we set aside so that we can
have an extended time to worship and focus upon the Lord both corporately and
individually
Let
us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some,
but let us exhort one another, especially as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 3:20 MEV
Quote: Warren Wiersbe - The ability to calm your soul and wait before
God is one of the most difficult things in the Christian life. Our old nature
is restless...the world around us is frantically in a hurry. But a restless
heart usually leads to a reckless life.
Conclusion: Christ as Lord of the Sabbath
offers true rest to whoever comes to Him.
“Come
to Me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you
rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me. For I am meek and lowly in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My
burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
As
the Sabbath gave Israel the opportunity to celebrate the freedom and rest from
slavery in Egypt; so the Lord's day provides an opportunity to celebrate the
freedom and rest from the slavery of sin that comes through a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ.
PRAY
No comments:
Post a Comment