Class Lesson April 6, 2014

 

Work and rest. What’s the biblical balance? 

Balance: Many of us work too much, fueled by a workaholic drive. Others barely make an effort, doing the minimum to stay employed and get paycheck. Both groups need balance. Many of us earn more than we personally need and fill our lives with experiences and stuff. Others among us struggle to get by. Both groups need balance.



This study lifts up the biblical mandates to work and to rest. It points us to actions that achieve balance. As we apply biblical principles, we move from living and earning for ourselves to discovering that our jobs and paychecks are resources we can invest for the kingdom of God.



Our sixth and final lesson in this series is called, "Give Work A Rest."

During the summer of 1924, the Olympics were hosted by the city of Paris. Eric Liddell was a committed Christian who refused to run on Sunday, so he chose to withdraw from the 100 meters race - his best event. Instead Liddell would run on Thursday in the 400 meter race and he would not only win the race, but break the world record with a time of 47.6 seconds.

Click Here to Watch

Is Eric Liddell’s interpretation of God’s command different than ours?

On Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, which included the command to remember and keep the Sabbath (Ex. 20:8-11). In the chapters that followed, God gave further laws – ceremonial, judicial, and moral laws – and in that law He reiterated the importance and value of keeping the Sabbath as a holy day of rest and celebration. The Sabbath rest served as a sign to the Israelites to lead them to remember who God is and their covenant relationship with Him.



In Exodus 24:1 Moses received an invitation to visit with the Lord on the mountain, to worship Him, and to receive further instruction that he was to deliver to the people. The verses for this session are a continuation of the instruction provided during that visit. They focus on the Lord’s command and expectation that His people remember, keep, and observe the Sabbath.

Rest is a gift from God for His glory and for your benefit.


 

I. A HOLY OBLIGATION – EXODUS 31:12-13

12 The Lord said to Moses: 13 “Tell the Israelites: You must observe My Sabbaths, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, so that you will know that I am Yahweh who sets you apart. 


Who is the authority behind the message?

• The Lord did all the talking. The message is to be heard and obeyed because the word is from the Lord. That the Lord spoke is another reminder that He makes Himself, His will, and His purpose known. God reveals Himself and His purpose to His people. Moses was the messenger to deliver more than just factual knowledge. This was a message of action, something the people must do because the Lord required it.
• God’s people are set apart to Him – “Tell the Israelites: You must observe My Sabbaths.” “I am Yahweh who sets you apart.”

What is the Sabbath?

• Sabbath comes from a word that means “to rest, to cease.” Contrary to what many may think, it does not mean “seventh.” Perhaps God referred to them as My Sabbaths to emphasize that they are connected to His example (Gen. 2:2-3) and are given by His command (Ex. 20:8). Moreover, the Sabbath is holy unto Him (31:15). In that sense it is His.

What is the purpose for the Sabbath observance?

• The Israelites were to observe or to keep the Sabbaths – what exactly did this mean? What we are not told is how they were to observe the Sabbaths – we still discuss this today.
• The observance of the Sabbath was not an arbitrary requirement on God’s part. It had a practical element; it served a purpose – “for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations.” A sign is a remembrance – a remembrance of the relationship between the Lord and His people. A sign that you will know that I am the Lord.
• The Lord established the Sabbath as a covenant sign between Him and His people.
• As the Lord’s people obey His expressed will, He teaches them more about Himself.

How do you observe the Sabbath? Is it Sunday or another day of the week?



How is a Sabbath rest different from and similar to other types of rest?



Sabbath means rest. It implies a cessation, a stop, a break. The Sabbath was exemplified by God when he rested from his Creation work. He did not rest because He was tired. He rested because He had completed his work. But in doing so He provided a model for us to follow. To rest is to stop. It means that one day a week we stop doing what we normally do. If you are plumber for one day you don’t plumb. If you are a student for one day you don’t study. If you are a painter for one day you don’t paint. When we stop, here’s what we are to do: A. Look upward to God. Rest reminds us of who God is and His role in our life. We ask ourselves, “Where is God in my life?” B. Look backward at our work. Rest is a time for a personal check up. We ask ourselves: Was it done for God? C. Look forward to the future. When we rest in the biblical sense, we affirm our intentions to pursue a Christ-centered tomorrow. We ask ourselves, “Am I going with God?”






II. AN ACTUAL DAY OF REST – EXODUS 31:14-15
14 Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. 15 Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, dedicated to the Lord. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.


How does God’s view of the Sabbath differ from our culture’s view?





Why should we take this observance to rest on the Sabbath seriously?

• The fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8-11 is the longest of the Ten Commandments. Sabbath observance is presented as a holy obligation, not a religious option. The seriousness with which the Lord offers this admonition is reinforced by the severity of the punishment that would come on every one that profanes it. Those who violated the holy obligation must be put to death. Death is the ultimate separation brought on by sin. “If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people.” Those who abuse the obligation were not to maintain fellowship with those who were living in obedience and loyalty as God’s covenant people.
• We have a tendency to want to tone down comments like these. We prefer God to be more tolerant, kinder, and gentler. The truth is, God is each of those and more. But He is also a holy God who has holy expectations of His people. He made those expectations known and spelled out the repercussions of being disobedient. The Old Testament does include one record of a man who was put to death for violation of the Sabbath (Num. 15:32-36). God’s Word is still to be taken seriously today. 
• The inclusion of this admonition in the Ten Commandments surely shows it was not to be taken lightly.

 

What is the purpose of the Sabbath suggested in verse 15?

• The phrase 15 Work may be done for six days – does not say which six, so there is an element of flexibility here that may be critical for contemporary application in a changing culture. The Sabbath on the seventh day was meant to bring rest and relaxation from the labor of the six-day week. From the beginning God intended and commended work. However, we see in the Lord’s example, His commandment, and His practical instructions that He also intended and commended rest.
• Sabbath is not just a religious practice; it is a divine gift to the world that acknowledges an essential rhythm of life composed of working and resting. It is part of the created order of things. We work, but we must rest. We rest so we may be refreshed to work.

 

What constitutes biblical remembering and observance of the Sabbath today?

• The greater challenge for contemporary Christians comes in trying to determine what constitutes biblical remembering and observance of the Sabbath, especially in terms of resting on the Sabbath.
• Explanations have changed with the times. Clearly the Scriptures in Exodus describe it as cessation of work. However, some commentators suggest this meant only to certain kinds of work, heavy duty labor. But the episode in Numbers 15 seems to negate that view, for the man was not doing what we would classify as heavy work. Work appears to be all inclusive the word can mean business, occupation, or employment.
• Cessation of work opens up two other problems today: 1) Sunday business closures are a thing of the past. For a long time only businesses related to basic human need were open on Sunday – not now. 2) What constitutes rest? Is it physical, mental, inactivity, or is rest anything that changes the pace of life and leads to mental and emotional refreshment? Does the Scripture mean that recreational activities are to be avoided, including a relaxing picnic on the river bank? If we’re not careful in making the rules that define Sabbath observance, we will get caught up in the legalism that characterized the Pharisees. Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)

Other thoughts:

• Any who defy or abuse God’s Word will be subject to His wrath.
• The concept of Sabbath is not necessarily tied to a particular day bit is related to the divine plan for a healthy rhythm of life that includes both work and rest.
• Sabbath is a gift to us from God, but holy unto Him.
• As with all things holy to the Lord, our disregard of them and our profaning of them make us displeasing to Him.

Note the words: for you. The Sabbath is set apart for you. Can you believe it? God knew that we could not run full throttle. He knew we needed a day set apart to rejuvenate and to recharge our batteries. The Sabbath is a day for you. Rest and relaxation are not optional. Rest was never meant to be a luxury, but a necessity for growth, maturity, and health. We do not rest because our work is done; we rest because God commanded it and created us to have a need for it. The Sabbath was made for man because God knows that our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being demands periodic breaks. The old proverb is true, “If you don’t come apart and rest awhile, you will come apart.”



First the Sabbath was holy or set apart for you. This time God said that this day is holy or set apart to the Lord. The Sabbath is a holy day. It’s God’s day. The word holy literally means set apart or different or unique. This day is different from the other six. On the other six you can work but on this day—it is different—you don’t. It is a holy day. It is God’s day in the same way that the first ten percent of your income is God’s money.

Should we keep the Sabbath or not?

Exodus 20:8; 23:12; 31:15; Deuteronomy 5:12; Leviticus 26:2 and Romans 14:5; Colossians 2:16
 

Keep the Sabbath
(Exodus 20:8-9) - "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 "Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
(Exodus 23:12) - "Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor in order that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves."
(Exodus 31:15) - "For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death."
(Deuteronomy 5:12) - "Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you."
(Leviticus 26:2) - "You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord." 

Don't keep the Sabbath
(Romans 14:5) - "One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind."
(Colossians 2:16) - "Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day."



It was the custom of the Jews to come together on the Sabbath, which is Saturday, cease work, and worship God. Of the 10 commandments listed in Exodus 20:1-17, only nine of them were reinstituted in the New Testament. (Six in Matthew 19:18, murder, adultery, stealing, false witness, honor parents, and worshiping God; Romans 13:9, coveting. Worshiping God properly covers the first three commandments.) The one that was not reaffirmed was the one about the Sabbath. Instead, Jesus said that He is the Lord of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8).



In creation God rested on the seventh day. But, since God is all powerful, He doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t need to take a break and rest. So, why does it say that He rested? The reason is simple: Mark 2:27 says, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." In other words, God established the Sabbath as a rest for His people, not because He needed a break, but because we are mortal and need a time of rest, of focus on God. In this, our spirits and bodies are both renewed.



The O.T. system of Law required keeping the Sabbath as part of the overall moral, legal, and sacrificial system by which the Jewish people satisfied God’s requirements for behavior, government, and forgiveness of sins. The Sabbath was part of the Law in that sense. In order to "remain" in favor with God, you had to also keep the Sabbath. If it was not kept, then the person was in sin and would often be punished (Ezekiel 18:4; Rom. 6:23; Deut. 13:1-9; Num. 35:31; Lev. 20:2, etc.).



But with Jesus’ atonement, and justification by faith (Rom. 5:1), we no longer are required to keep the Law and hence the Sabbath which was only a shadow of things to come (Col. 2:16-17). We are not under Law, but grace (Rom. 6:14-15). The Sabbath is fulfilled in Jesus because in Him we have rest (Matt. 11:28). We are not under obligation to keep the Law and this goes for the Sabbath as well.



In what ways do you use the Sabbath to learn more about the Lord and to know Him more deeply?



III. A REFLECTION OF RELATIONSHIP – EXODUS 31:16-17
16 The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign forever between Me and the Israelites, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.”



What reason for Sabbath observance is given in these verses?

• To observe the Sabbath includes taking actions appropriate to the intent of the Sabbath such as learning about God, resting, being refreshed, and honoring God.
• The Sabbath is a sign of the relationship we have with the Lord God who chose us as His people and who is the creator of all the earth.
• Our covenant relationship with the Lord knows no end.

How does the way you use your Sabbath help you acknowledge who God is in your life?




Other Thoughts:

• The covenant was an agreement that the people had with God. He would be their God; they would be his people. It carried all kinds of wonderful benefits, as well as, consequences. One of the signs that showed that God’s people were keeping the covenant was their keeping the Sabbath. Taking the time away from their labor, which would have been very difficult in an agrarian society, was a sign of trust that God would provide and protect them. Again, just as God can do more with the ninety percent of our money when we give him his first ten percent, God can accomplish more with our time when we set aside one day out of seven for him. What do Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby have in common? Several things. One is that both are owned by Christian men who operate according to biblical principles and one on those to keep the Sabbath, therefore, they are not open on Sunday. They observe a Sabbath and both of those companies are extremely profitable. Makes you wonder why any business is open on Sunday, doesn’t it? Their action carries another reality. It is a sign of their dependence on God. By the way, when you go to church every Sunday, it is a sign to your neighbors that you have a covenant relationship with God. You are depending on him. You know he will protect and provide for you. Rest is not an option. It distinguishes the believer's life. It empowers us for greater growth. Billy Graham once said that if he had the last ten years of his life to live over, he would withdraw more often for times of rest, meditation on the word, and prayer so he could give himself completely to the battle when he needed to. I suspect the same could be said for us. He knew that God’s rest is necessary for spiritual growth. Augustine wrote, “Man was made for God and is restless until he rests in God.” Until we enter God’s rest we will never fully enjoy life. Until there is a balance of rest of work, we will never achieve full effectiveness. Until we rest in God, we will never know God’s rest. The root of our problem may not be physical but spiritual. Spiritual growth necessitates God’s rest.

Which purpose for Sabbath is one you need to give more attention to?




“The part stands for the whole” is an Old Testament principle that can be found in several significant passages. For example, the first fruits were dedicated to the Lord in the belief that all the harvest was from the Lord and was due Him. The same can be applied to the dedication of the firstborn. The giving of one was an acknowledgement that all life comes from the Lord and is dedicated to Him. That principle may be at work in the Sabbath. One day is set aside by the Lord and to the Lord, but in truth all days belong to Him and are to be used in ways that honor Him.



That being said let it be clear that we are to devote that one day to the Lord. The concept of Sabbath has not been replaced or become outdated. It is a day devoted to coming to know the Lord better, to acknowledge the relationship we have with Him, and to recognize Him as Creator of all things. As Creator, He has assigned us work to do that enables us to join Him in His holy plan and purpose. He also has provided for our need to rest, reflect, and to be refreshed and renewed. That, too, is a gift from Him for our benefit and for His glory.

Prayer of Commitment

Lord, often our perception of our worth is tied to what we do that we think spending more time doing it may increase our worth before others. Help us not to be so consumed with doing what we do that we overlook Your command and expectation that we rest and be refreshed. In the Name of the One who served well but who also knew His need to spend time in Your presence. Amen.

Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy

by John Piper

The institution of a Saturday worship service raises the question whether what we are doing here is right in view of 2,000 years of Sunday Sabbath keeping in the Christian Church. And if it is right, it raises the further question what special place Sunday should have in the life of a Christian, especially for those who regularly worship on Saturday evening.



The Old Testament Sabbath Command

To help us answer these questions, I want us to try to get an overview of the biblical teaching on the Sabbath. Let's begin at the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20. The Sabbath commandment is number 4 and is found in verses 8–11.



Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.



Five Comments

At least five things in these verses need special comment.

1. Remembering: Israel is to remember the rest day. Sabbath means rest. "Remember the Sabbath day," means, "Don't forget to take a day off."

2. Keeping It Holy: "Keep it holy," means set it aside from all other days as special. Specifically, as verse 10 says, keep it "to the Lord," or "for the Lord." In other words, the rest is not to be aimless rest, but God-centered rest. Attention is to be directed to God in a way that is more concentrated and steady than on ordinary days. Keep the day holy by keeping the focus on the holy God.

3. One Out of Every Seven: The holy rest day should be one out of every seven. Verse 9: "Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God." Work six, rest one. Work six, rest one. That's the pattern prescribed in the Ten Commandments. Note it does not say that the Sabbath ("rest day") has to be the last day of the week or the first day of the week. The concept of weeks is not even mentioned. The command is simply work six, rest one. Every seventh day should be a Sabbath.

4. No Fudging: No fudging on the commandment by saying, "Well, I will keep it, but I will put my maid to work, or set my ox to threshing with a carrot in front of his nose at 6 PM the evening of the Sabbath so that it will thresh the grain all day while I rest." God says, No. You miss the point if you try to keep the business running by using servants or animals or relatives. What point?

5. God's Rest after Creation: Verse 11 leads us to the basic point of the commandment. It is based on God's rest after creation: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." This is taken from Genesis 2:2–3. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all His work which He had done in creation.



God "Blessed" and "Hallowed" the Seventh Day

Both Genesis 2:3 and Exodus 20:11 say that God "blessed" and "hallowed" the rest day. What does it mean for God to bless a day? I think it means that He makes the day a time of blessing. When God blesses a man, the man becomes rich with blessings. When He blesses a land, the land becomes rich with blessings. So when He blesses a day, that day becomes rich with blessings.



And what does it mean that He hallows the day? "Hallows" is the same word as "sanctifies." It means set the day aside for special focus on what is holy, namely, God and His holy works.



Now consider the two words together. He blessed the day and He hallowed the day. How do these fit together? He made it a source of blessing, and he made it to focus on Himself. Isn't it obvious that the hallowing is included in the blessing and the blessing is included in the hallowing. When you hallow God and focus your attention on Him, you receive more blessing than if you keep on busying yourself seven days a week with secular affairs, thinking that professional advancement and money are the route to true happiness. And (the reverse) when you seek your blessing in God rather than in the products of human labor, you hallow Him and honor His holiness as the greater wealth.



God's Rest

The reason given in both Genesis 2:3 and Exodus 20:11 why God blessed and hallowed the seventh day is that "on it God rested from all His work which He had done in creation." What does it mean that God rested? It means at least that He was satisfied that His work of creation was complete and was "very good." His rest means that He wanted to now stand back as it were in leisure and savor the beauty and completeness of His creative work.



This is the real basis of His hallowing and blessing the day of rest. He is saying in effect, "Let My highest creature, the one in My image, stop every seven days and commemorate with Me the fact that I am the creator who has done all this. Let him stop working and focus on Me, that I am the source of all that he has. I am the fountain of blessing. I have made the very hands and mind with which he works. Let one day out of seven demonstrate that all land and all animals and all raw materials and all breath and strength and thought and emotion and everything come from Me. Let man look to Me in leisure one day out of seven for the blessing that is so elusive in the affairs of this world."



The beautiful thing about the Sabbath is that God instituted it as a weekly reminder of two things.

1. That all true blessing comes from His grace, not our labor.

2. The other is that we hallow Him and honor Him and keep the day holy if we seek the fullness of His blessing by giving our special attention to Him on that day.



God as the Source of Salvation

It would be a mistake to conclude from these two texts that the only blessings we should focus on during our Sabbath observance were the blessings of creation. Deuteronomy 5 gives us a second version of the Ten Commandments. Here the basis of the Sabbath observance is different. Verse 15: You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.



In other words the mighty hand and the outstretched arm of God were not wearied by the work of creation. They are full of strength. God's rest was not for recuperation, but for exultation. Now the same God has shown His power not just to create but also to save. So the focus of the Sabbath is on God not only as the source of creation, but also as the source of salvation. "Your God brought you up out of the land of Egypt . . . THEREFORE He commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." One day of rest in every seven, kept holy to the Lord, reminds us and shows the world that GOD is our creator and our deliverer—we did not make ourselves, we cannot sustain or save ourselves without His grace. Be still and know that He is God.



The Sabbath as a Sign

What did the Lord say at the exodus from Egypt?

Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still.



Exodus 31:12–13 stresses again the truth that the Sabbath signifies our utter reliance on God's grace. And the Lord said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel, You shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you."



The Sabbath is a sign. It points to a truth that we are never to forget. The truth is that God (and not we ourselves) has sanctified us. He has chosen us and set us apart and worked to make us distinct among the peoples of the earth.



Summary of the Sabbath Command

In summary then, Exodus 20:11 and Deuteronomy 5:15 and Exodus 31:13 teach that the Sabbath is a way of remembering and expressing the truth that God is our creator and deliverer and sanctifier. We are dependent on Him for all we have in the world, for our deliverance from enemies, and for our holiness. He has indeed designed that we work. But our work neither creates, nor saves, nor sanctifies. For these we depend on the blessing of God. All things are from Him and through Him and to Him. Lest we ever forget this and begin to take our strength and thought and work too seriously, we should keep one day in seven to cease from our labors and focus on God as the source of all blessing.



Good News Not Bad News

Before we leave the Old Testament, there is one other passage that clarifies a common misunderstanding of the Sabbath. It is Isaiah 58:13–14. It is a shame that for so many people Sabbath keeping is thought of solely in terms of what you can't do. Its original intention was certainly intended to be good news not bad news. The Sabbath command is in fact a command to experience joy.



If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth.



God's Purpose for Us on the Sabbath

God's purpose for us on the Sabbath is that we experience the highest and most intense joy that can be experienced, namely, that we "take delight in the Lord." And yet what He finds again and again is professing Christians who prefer little human-sized pleasures from things that have no close relation to God at all.



If you worked seven days a week in the hot sun to keep life and limb together, with scarcely any time for leisure and reflection, would you consider it burdensome if your God came to you with omnipotent authority and said, "I don't want you to have to work so much. I want you to have a day a week to rest and enjoy what really counts in life. I promise to meet your needs with just six days of work"? That is not a cruel command. It is a gracious gift.

Why So Many People Think of the Sabbath as a Burden

The reason that so many people feel it as a burden is partly that we have so much leisure, we don't feel the need for the Sabbath rest; but more important, I think, is the fact that not many people really enjoy what God intended us to enjoy on the Sabbath, namely, Himself. Many professing Christians enjoy sports and television and secular books and magazines and recreation and hobbies and games far more than they enjoy direct interaction with God in His Word or in worship or in reading Christian books or in meditative strolls.



Therefore, inevitably people whose hearts are set more on the pleasures of the world than on the enjoyment of God will feel the Sabbath command as a burden not a blessing. This is what John says in 1 John 5:3, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome." The measure of your love for God is the measure of the joy you get in focusing on Him on the day of rest. For most people the Sabbath command is really a demand to repent. It invites us to enjoy what we don't enjoy and therefore shows us the evil of hearts, and our need to repent and be changed.



Jesus' View of the Sabbath

When we come over to the New Testament we find that in the intervening centuries the rabbis have added a lot of details to the Sabbath command and have missed the spirit of it as a wonderful gift for man's good. So Jesus slams head on into these traditions with a very different view than the one shared by the Pharisees. Let's look at this in Matthew 12:1–12.



At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck ears of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath." He said to them, "Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is lord of the Sabbath."



And He went on from there, and entered their synagogue. And behold, there was a man with a withered hand. And they asked Him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" so that they might accuse Him. He said to them, "What man of you, if he has one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."



You Must Have a Loving Heart

What was wrong with the Pharisees? Why couldn't they see the Old Testament the way Jesus did? Why didn't they see David's eating the bread of the Presence and the priest's Sabbath work in the temple as an indictment of their Sabbath traditions the way Jesus did? According to Jesus the Pharisees could only condemn the innocent because they never had understood Hosea 6:6. He quotes it in verse 7: God says, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." In other words the whole law exists for the sake of mercy. All the law is summed up in this one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The Pharisees couldn't see the true meaning of the Sabbath because they didn't have hearts of love. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath," Jesus says in Mark 2:27. So if your heart isn't a heart for man—if it is not a heart of love—you cannot see the meaning of the Sabbath. For the Sabbath is a gift of love to meet man's need, not an oppressive burden to make him miserable or proud.



Jesus Didn't Abolish the Sabbath

So Jesus didn't come to abolish the Sabbath but to dig it out from under the mountain of legalistic sediment, and give it to us again as a blessing rather than a burden. It is a day for showing mercy and a day for doing good (verse 12). It should not be governed rigidly by narrow definitions of what is work and what is not. It is a day to focus on the Lord. And now Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath (according to verse 8), so it is a day to focus on Jesus. And it is impossible that a day focused on Jesus should be a burden to the believing heart—"Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!"



The Practice of the Early Church

As we move on into the early church it is clear that the weekly day of rest and devotion was not rejected, but was changed from Saturday to Sunday. This is nowhere commanded. But there are two verses that suggest it happened already in the days of the apostles. One is Acts 20:7 which says, "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and he prolonged his speech until midnight." This seems to be a formal gathering for the Lord's Supper on Sunday evening, the first day of the week. (It could have been Saturday evening since by Jewish reckoning the day begins at 6:00 PM the previous evening. But Luke probably uses the Roman way of reckoning days from midnight to midnight. Cf. 4:3; 23:31f.) So it looks as though the switch to Sunday for worship had already begun.



The other verse that points in this direction is 1 Corinthians 16:2. Paul is trying to prepare the Corinthians for a collection that he is taking up from the churches for the saints in Jerusalem: "On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come." It seems that the first day of the week is now the day when Christians are performing special religious exercises.

The First Day of the Week

Those are the only explicit references in the New Testament that seem to relate the Sabbath to Sunday rather than Saturday. The real reason for why the church came to count the first day of the week as her day of rest and worship is that the Lord of the Sabbath rose from the dead on the first day of the week (John 20:1). Just like the work of the first creation was finished on the seventh day of the week, the work of the new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 2:10) was finished on the first day of the week by the resurrection of Jesus. So from the very earliest days Christians have set aside the first day of the week as their usual day of rest and worship.



Our Saturday Evening Service

What then shall we say about our Saturday evening service?

In view of the deep significance given in the Old Testament to a day of rest holy to the Lord, I do not in the least want to detract from the value of keeping the Christian Sabbath holy, namely, Sunday.



Three Ways to View It

To this end I would suggest we look at the Saturday evening service in one of the following ways. In none of them is the Saturday worship a replacement of Sunday Sabbath keeping.
It can be viewed as a lengthening of the Sunday Sabbath, starting five hours early at 7:00 PM instead of 12:00 AM.
We could simply adopt the biblical/Jewish way of reckoning time and say that the first day of the week begins at 6:00 PM on Saturday. In this case the Saturday service would in fact be on the first day of the week, and our Sabbath could run till 6:00 PM on Sunday or be lengthened at the other end to allow a sanctified place for the Sunday evening service.
We could regard the Saturday evening service as not taking place on the first day of the Christian Sabbath but as an extra service in the week to prepare us for the observance of the Sabbath on Sunday. In that case the corporate Sabbath worship might be what it was for the early church in Acts 20, namely, a Sunday evening service instead of a Sunday morning service.



How Can We Do This?

Where do we get the right to play fast and loose with the times of the Sabbath like this? The answer is that we get it from the Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath. If Jesus were here today, He would say something like this: "If priests in the temple and pastors in the Christian church are permitted to work 16 hours on the usual day of rest, then the saints are permitted to worship one hour the day before. The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. Come, learn what it means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'"



He would send us to consult the words of His apostle in Romans 14:5, "One man judges one day above another, while another man judges all days alike. Let everyone be fully convinced in his own mind." We can take this to imply that some think that all days qualify for the Sabbath. Some think that only Saturday qualifies. Others only Sunday. Do not condemn one another over these disagreements. Let everyone be fully convinced in his own mind.

Summary

In summary, these four points:

1. Accept the gift of one day's rest a week. Humble yourself to believe you need it. And be willing to admit that your wealth and your significance and your true advancement in life depend far more on God's labor than on yours.

2. Devote one day a week to focus your attention on God in a special way. Keep a holy day and devote yourself to those things that deepen your love for God.

3. Except where you think obedience to God requires otherwise, let that day of rest and God ward focus be on the first day of the week as a witness to the world that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your Sabbath and of your life.

4. For those of you who are free in your conscience to extend your holy exercises forward into Saturday night, let's dream together of new ways to sanctify Sunday morning. Could it be that the Lord is leading you to new dimensions of prayer, or new hours of personal Bible study, or new deeds of mercy for the poor, or Sunday morning visitation to a shut-in, or perhaps a home evangelistic Bible study for neighbors who would not come to church but might come to your home? Can you think of any better time to reach your neighbors with the gospel than between 10 and 12 on Sunday morning? Who knows—maybe the city will find its way to Bethlehem on Saturday night, or maybe Saturday night will free up the saints to reach the city on Sunday morning? If any of you has a sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not reach in and pull it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good—all kinds of good—on Sunday morning.

This was a good end to a good series!

 

 

Hope you enjoyed it...

 

 

In His Love,

 

 

David & Susan