Download Sabbath We went to district conference last week and they gave

Sabbath
We went to district conference last week and they gave everyone a free book called, “24/6.” It
was written by a doctor named Matthew Sleeth and it’s about the Sabbath. Apparently there’s a real
growing need for our culture to really take seriously looking into what “Sabbath” is.
The idea of being “overworked” isn’t new nor is it just limited to the West. The Japanese for
example have a new word, karoshi and it means death from being overworked. Apparently being
worked to death was commonplace enough that they’ve made a word for it. And Americans experience
what it’s like to be overworked as well. The economy stinks and so people work longer hours for less
money and the money they are making is worth less than it once was.
But it’s not just that we’re working too much. We also aren’t resting. My friend and
accountability partner, Kevin Rosenkranz just told me this past week that he was downgrading his cell
phone. He’s telling people he’s going medieval. He said, “I hate that any time I’m free and in a public
setting, instead of standing there and looking awkward or being forced to talk to people and socialize…
my immediate reaction is to check my email.” He said, “One of the reasons I’m giving it up and returning
to a flip phone is because I don’t like always feeling like I need to be doing something and I want to have
extra time and I want my reaction to be, not what new email have I gotten but ‘oh, I’ve got time to pray
with God right now.’”
I’ve got another friend who posted a facebook status about how going to the bathroom will
never be the same because now he sees it as a chance to play angry birds. People instagram every time
they sit down to eat. When Ruby and I got married, one of the things we asked our friends and family to
do was to turn their cell phones off and put their cameras away. We did this for two reasons. The first
reason was for us… we didn’t want the photographers that we had hired to take a bunch of pictures like
this one. But the other reason was because we wanted people to really be present in what we were
doing. We wanted them to really be able to experience and celebrate our wedding with us.
There’s a book out right now called 7 men and the secret of their greatness. One of the men in that
book is a guy named Eric Liddell (show picture). He’s an Olympic runner who disqualified himself in 1947
from running the 100 meter dash (which he was favored to win the gold in) because it was scheduled on
a Sunday. He faced mockery and ridicule whenever he went out in public and was a great
disappointment to many in Britain who thought he ought to run anyway, despite his convictions, in
order to bring home the gold medal for his country.
To some Christians, this seems quite a noble cause. To others though it seems quite ridiculous.
Actually, I meet with a Wesleyan pastor in our district who probably loves this story. This particular
pastor doesn’t go out to eat on Sundays because he believes companies should allow their employees to
honor the Sabbath and so if he eats at a restaurant then he’s supporting that company to remain open.
I’ll admit… I gave this pastor a hard time. Jokingly… but nonetheless, I gave him a hard time because my
initial response was… that’s Old testament law man. You’re a pastor… you get paid to do work on the
Sabbath. And yet you’re trying to say it’s wrong to work on the sabbath… Do you eat pork? Do you wear
clothing made of two different materials? If an animal chews cud but doesn’t have split hooves would
you still consider eating it?
The commandment also plays a role into why you always want Chick fil a on a Sunday but you can
never have it. Because they’re a Christian organization. And for them, that means being closed on
Sundays. But the frustrating thing about all of it is… the Sabbath wasn’t even on a Sunday. It was
originally on a Saturday. Remember when pastor Tim was preaching on the commandment, “You must
not murder.” And he went through two lists… One… what is this commandment referring to and two…
what is this commandment not referring to. Well… When God says, “Honor the Sabbath” he’s referring
to Saturday. So why do we worship on a Sunday? Well because that’s when Christ rose from the grave
and so we celebrate Sunday or… as early Christians referred to it, “The Lord’s day.” And part of the
reason early Christians were okay with this switch was because they weren’t tied to Old Testament law
anymore. Well, to an extent.
You see, There’s three types of laws in the OT.
a. Some of them are moral… like Don’t steal. Don’t kill. Return your neighbors ox if it
wanders away. Don’t sleep with your close relatives.
b. And some of them are civil… like (Deut 24:10-11) “If you lend anything to your neighbor,
do not enter his house to pick up the item he is giving as security. 11 You must wait
outside while he goes in and brings it out to you. Now… if you lend something to me and
walk inside my house… I’m probably not going to call you out on this obscure OT law.
Right?
c. And some of them are ceremonial. Like certain procedures for sacrifices and special
days and festivals. So where does the Sabbath land?
d. The rest of the Ten Commandments can clearly be seen as moral laws. So is the Sabbath
law the only ceremonial law and do we not have to obey it anymore?
2. Let’s go a bit further first. You see, this OT law was purposed to do two things
a. First, it was supposed to “Make God’s people Holy. Throughout the OT God says, “You
must be my Holy people. And sometimes he’ll say something like, “You must be my Holy
people so don’t eat meat that is torn by beasts in the field (Exodus 22:31).” Holy… that
Hebrew word is kodesh and it means “apartness” or “sacredness” or separateness. Or
set apart. And so being set apart for the people of God meant they couldn’t get tattoos,
and they couldn’t eat animals that had split hooves unless it also chewed cud or they
couldn’t eat animals that chewed cud unless it also had split hooves, they had certain
purification rituals if they became unclean by doing something they shouldn’t have
done, they couldn’t bear false witness or steal or dishonor their parents oh and also…
they couldn’t work on the Sabbath.
b. The second purpose of the law was to show people that… they weren’t perfect and no
matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t be righteous and trying to live up to the strict
code of God’s law was impossible. We find this in (Galatians 3:18) which says “Why,
then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins.”
3.
4.
5.
6.
And the New Testament tells us that one of the things that happened when Christ died
for us on the cross was that we became free from the law. In the sense that we’re free
from the rigors of the law. We’re free from the letter of the law. We’re free from the
ceremonial and civil law but we’re still obey the spirit of the law.
So the fun question is… “Is resting on the Sabbath a ceremonial or civil law or a moral law.”
Well if not working on the Sabbath is a ceremonial law… then the bad news is… we’re doing it
wrong. Because the Sabbath was originally on a Saturday. You and I don’t celebrate the Sabbath.
We come to church on a Sunday because Christians have and always will celebrate the Lord’s
Day… the day in which Christ rose from the grave. This is where Seventh Day Adventists come
from. Interesting stuff. There was a small group of Christians in New York back in 1844 who
thought the world was going to end on October 22, 1844. They believed it so badly that many of
them didn’t harvest their crops thinking that there would be no winter to prepare for. So they
got together, waiting for Christ to return. And it went from day to night and Christ hadn’t
returned. Some were getting nervous but they decided that they’d at least wait until midnight.
Well midnight rolled around and Christ hadn’t come. Which isn’t much of a shocker because
we’re all still here. Anyways… sometime after midnight they all disbanded… giving up on the
idea that Christ was coming back. Some went back to their old churches. The good ones went to
Wesleyan churches. But a group of them went into a barn and they decided to pray to God and
ask him why Christ didn’t return. Eventually they decided that there was a temple in heaven and
Christ had gone from the outer parts of the heavenly temple into the holy of holies where he
would then judge the world from and his physical advent or physical coming back would happen
once every Christian worshipped on Saturday. As a matter of fact they took it so seriously that
they decided you weren’t saved unless you worshipped on a Saturday. And when they decided
that… they became what Christians refer to as a cult. We don’t use that word the way that the
world uses it. When a Christian teacher uses cult in a teaching setting he means, “those who
deviate from the basic truths of Christianity.” SO for example, Orthodox (or right teaching)
Christianity doesn’t think you’re saved by following the Sabbath on a Saturday. Orthodox
Christianity says that it’s by the grace of God through faith in Christ that we’re saved. Eventually
the 7th Day Adventist church decided that you didn’t have to practice the Sabbath on a Saturday
in order to be saved and so they’re no longer a cult. Which is great news.
But is working on the Sabbath a Moral issue? Most of the time when you look at one of the 10
commandments they say things like, “Don’t steal.” “don’t bear false witness” “Don’t commit
adultery.” But we lucked out, because when God gave the 10 commandments he apparently
paused to say a few extra things about why the Jews need to follow the Sabbath and so we’ll
look at that and see if it shouldn’t apply to us as well. And when Moses gives his sermon on the
10 commandments in Deuteronomy… he also pauses to say something about keeping the
Sabbath and he gives yet another reason behind why the Jews need to follow the Sabbath.
Exodus 20
8
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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,
neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor
any foreigner residing in your towns. 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.
a. God rests on the 7th day. One of the most common questions when I was in middle
school in a Sunday school class at a Lutheran church I went to was, “Why did God need
to rest? Did God get tired? What did God do that day? Also… did God make the world in
7 days? The Hebrew word is Yom. I don’t know if God created the world in 7 days or not
but I do know that God created the world in 7 Yoms. If any of you wants to continue
that discussion further… I have no problem with you asking Pastor Tim about it. But why
did God rest? Well, he rested to commemorate the creation of the world. To mark how
special it was. To set it apart from the other days and make it holy. To say, in a sense,
everything I’ve made is good. I don’t need to make anything else. The trinity was
celebrating. The angels were celebrating. A funny thing happens around Christmas
time… we get off work. We’re celebrating. We’re not working. Have you ever noticed
that at birthday parties and graduation parties… working is hardly part of the planned
festivities. My stepfather Vincent planned an anniversary gift for my mom. Here’s what
he didn’t plan… work. He didn’t say… let’s celebrate our anniversary by going out and
digging an enormous hole in our backyard and then see how fast we can fill it. No. They
went to Jamaica and they lounged around. And so celebration and rest go hand in hand.
When we Sabbath, we’re celebrating God’s creation of the world by resting. We
celebrate God’s work.
b. I know I’ve referenced Mark Driscoll a few times in my sermons but I need to give him
credit once more because I remember him preaching a sermon in which he said
something along the lines of…When we practice the Sabbath, we remember that God
created the world. The Sabbath is a chance for us to realize that we didn’t create the
world. Its movement around the sun isn’t dictated by whether we stop working or not.
God is big enough that you and I can take a day off… and the world won’t take any
notice. Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way, right? Sometimes it feels I have to keep
doing and doing and doing otherwise nothing will get done and everything will fall apart.
A lot of us struggle with that. Some us never rest… which is perhaps why God didn’t say
“Okay, Israelites… it’s your call… it’s good to rest but feel free not to.” Instead… he says,
“You must rest.” And he made it one of the commandments. When we Sabbath, we
confess that God is more powerful than us.
c. We’re protestants. We love work. I have a professor who went to visit some catholic
monks with some friends once and one of his friends turned to a monk and said, “How
can you feel like you’re serving God when you’re so separated from the world and you
spend all your time praying.” And the monk said, “You protestants are so busy, busy,
busy, always running around working thinking that God can’t do anything without you.”
We call it the protestant work ethic. And we’re pretty sure the bible has a verse in it
somewhere that says God helps those who help themselves. It’s not in the bible by the
way. But here’s the great thing. God doesn’t love work that much. I’ve heard a sermon
that talks about the idea that God had work for Adam and Eve because he asked Adam
to name the animals. And that in Heaven we’ll probably have work to do because God
loves to give man work because work makes man feel good and I don’t doubt that we’ll
have meaningful work to do which is what this pastor talked about but here’s a really
cool thing. God loves rest. None of the commands in the 10 commandments has
anything to do with working or actively performing some task. And one of them
specifically says to rest. And not only that but Heaven in the New Testament is referred
to as a Sabbath. God loves rest a lot more than protestants do. When we Sabbath, We
love rest as God does.
d. Christ also has something to say about the Sabbath and I love what Christ says about the
Sabbath so before we look at Deuteronomy 5… let’s check out Christ’s words… he says,
“Man wasn’t made for the Sabbath but rather the Sabbath was made for man.” In other
words… You guys weren’t made so that God could force you to obey rules… rather…
these rules were made in order to bless you. The Sabbath is designed for us as a blessing
to us. When we preach on the 10 commandments it’s because God desired to bless us
with them. The Sabbath was created in order to be a blessing to you and I. When we
Sabbath, we receive God’s blessing.
7. Now, Deuteronomy 5 tells us even more about the Sabbath
12
“Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 13 Six
days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 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 ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in
your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. 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.
a. Why should the Israelites obey the Sabbath? Because they were slaves for at least 200
years in Egypt. They didn’t get a break. They were worked to death. God freed them so
that they could live better lives and not be slaves and not have to constantly work. Yet
apparently they have a tendency to go back to their former ways and to work
themselves as if they were still slaves. Which we also have a tendency to do. We have a
tendency to idolize work. We have a tendency to put work above God. We have a
tendency to define ourselves and others by our jobs rather than by our faith. God freed
his chosen people from slavery. So they wouldn’t have to constantly be working. It
wasn’t his wish for them and it’s not his wish for us. When we Sabbath, we prevent
bondage to work.
b. There’s also an interesting spiritual parallel that we can draw. You and I were once
slaves to sin. Jesus Christ died so that we would no longer live as slaves but rather as
children of God. You and I are a part of God’s family. We’re not to return to our former
ways. God has freed us from our bondage. People who work 24/7 and don’t spend time
with God are people who are acting as slaves to sin. People who understand that they
are children of God and new creations in Christ ought to put their foot down and draw a
line and make sure that they’re spending time, resting in the presence of their creator.
Spending time to rest in the presence of God is what God’s people were made to do.
When you and I rest in the presence of God… we are being children of God. We’re in our
element when we rest with God. We’re at our best when we’ve been well rested in the
presence of God. We can’t operate responsibly unless we’ve rested in the presence of
God. And we get to. We were once slaves. We didn’t have the ability to spend time with
God. We didn’t have the freedom to know God. We didn’t have a reason to do anything
else but stay busy apart from God. It’s all different now. When you don’t know God…
you live for yourself and others and so you think earthly physical productivity is one of
the greatest pursuits. But I read a quote once that said the real tragedy of life is to never
be a saint. The real tragedy is to not know God intimately. You won’t know God
intimately if you’re always “busy, busy, busy.” When we Sabbath, we’re spending time
as children of God.
8. Let’s Recap.
a. Is the Sabbath ceremonial or moral? Well, there’s a ceremonial aspect if you demand
that resting is to be done on Saturday. But there’s most definitely a moral aspect that
says, “It’s good to take time to rest with God and it’s bad to not to take that time.”
b. So… do we need to practice the Sabbath? Practicing the Sabbath religiously and I don’t
put a bad connotation on that because I believe religion and orthodox teaching are
necessities to the faith. And so practicing the Sabbath by saying, God I’m not working on
Sunday. I refuse to. I want to celebrate with you today… all day… and not work… That’s
okay. That’s great. That’s a spiritual discipline. We don’t need to practice the Sabbath
religiously. You can rest and spend time with God for half the day on Saturday and half
the day on Friday. Or maybe a quarter of the day for four days. There’s no rule. There’s
no sin in not “Sabbathing the proper way.” But there is sin in not spending time with
God at all. It is immoral to not rest and always be busy. You should be ashamed of
working yourself to death… not proud of sending yourself to an early grave.
c. So, The Sabbath can be a spiritual discipline, it’s not immoral to not practice the Sabbath
as outlined in the OT and you don’t have to not work for a whole day if you don’t want
to but to not rest with God at all throughout the week is immoral.
d. What happens when we Sabbath?
i. We celebrate God’s creation.
ii. We confess that God is more powerful than us
iii. We love rest as God does
iv. We receive God’s blessing
v. We prevent bondage to work
vi. We spend time as children of God
e. Challenge:
9. Let’s pray