Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Sabbath: Remember, Rest, Refocus, Rejoice (Part I) Though the Fourth Commandment takes up
more space than the other nine, it is the one most likely not to be taken seriously by God’s
people. Let’s take a good look at God’s command to “remember the Sabbath
day, and keep it holy.” I have approached this particular
commandment with eagerness, tempered by the knowledge that for some reason Christian
people do not see the fourth commandment the same way. I think we are together on murder
and pretty clear on graven images. Why is it the fourth commandment makes many Christians
squirm and others swell with pride? Exodus 20 My family was not a Christian family,
although my brother and I went to Sunday school from time to time. This I remember most
about Sunday; Sunday was different. In our house, whether we went to Sunday school or not,
we did nothing other than what we did as a family. This was not for religious reasons; it
was just the way it was. Some of you may remember a childhood
like that as well. The Sunday question did not much occur to me as I grew. I became a
believer in 1975 and eventually found myself in full-time Christian ministry as a pastor.
Going back 20 years, I was the pastor at a wonderful church, an agriculturally oriented
church, when the issue arose only from something of an unexpected direction to me. We had
a young couple in the church who were looking to minister to the youth. They were trying
to raise money. In order to do that, the proposal was a bake sale, which they intended to
hold on Sunday. In some of these rural and remote
communities, Sunday is truly the only day everybody is all in one place at one time. In
that particular location, I had people who were very regular church attendees who lived 70
miles from one another. The church really was the place they met one day a week and where
they saw one another. Many of them to this day, I am sure, have never been in one another’s
homes. One of the senior families in our
congregation said if the bake sale was on Sunday we are not participating. We are not
going to support a bake sale in front of Food Farm on Sunday. I began sensing what we
would call Sabbath confusion. The elders in the church were farmers
and to a man, they would not turn on a piece of equipment on Sunday. They just would not
do it. If it were 50 acres left to the whole harvest and thunderstorms were due late that
day, maybe, but that would be rare. I am sure it would be followed by some chagrin and
perhaps some repentance. I can remember being told more than once our neighbors are out
there on Sunday and they are combining on Sunday and they are drilling on Sunday, but at
the end of the season we seem to be doing just as well or better than they are for having
taken our Sundays off. They would not work on Sunday, but
some of them would really play. They would for the most part show up for services in the
morning but they would have to park strategically in order to fit their boats along the
curb. I am simply saying this was confusing. I have a strong sense that it still is. What
is right and what is wrong when it comes to the fourth commandment? We have a dilemma, an
issue. The reason is if, in fact, the ten words, the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments,
reflect the character of God and if in fact we would not yield on the first, second,
third, fifth through tenth Commandment -- those are not to be compromised, they are non-negotiable -- why the fourth? It’s time to think of it. It’s
time to pray about it. And it’s time, perhaps, to retool. Some groups, when it comes
to this notion of the Lord’s day or the Fourth Commandment, would just toss it,
thinking, that the New Testament has replaced the Old. We’ll worship Wednesday or
Saturday or Thursday. Let’s not worry about it. There is a strong movement afoot in
evangelicalism to accommodate the church to the priorities of the world, which means let’s
not do anything on Sunday that would have to do with church and worship because the world
does not and are we not trying to reach the world? Toss the Sabbath notion, some would
say. Others would say no, keep it. Going back several hundred years in the history of our
nation to colonial New England, the question was such a burning one that not only did
believers and whole denominations divide on the issue, but one group came up with 39 pages
of rules. This is what you do on the Sabbath, and this is what you do not do. These are
Christians in the evangelical tradition and I am thinking. How is it that they are
different than the rabbis of the inter-testament time that so messed up the Sabbath by the
time Jesus arrived on earth? What is the difference? I am not sure there is one. When Jesus ministered, His key
controversy, those that would lead to His betrayal, arrest, and ultimately crucifixion,
largely centered around His treatment of the Sabbath. By way of preview, we will spend
some time on that a week from now. We look at the Lord’s day, or the
Fourth Commandment, or the Sabbath, and say, “Is this a time for God’s people
now to make rules?” Is that something of a legalistic approach? Of course, horror of
horrors, in America we would reject that. On the other hand, just bunch it, toss it. We
would reject that too. As a matter of fact, I am convinced that God’s people are to
keep the Sabbath. That is, with the Bible properly understood. We have a serious issue and it is time to take a
fresh look. We will go back in the Bible and we
will look for the facts of the matter. If at the end of however many Sundays we are here,
if at the end of that time we have a list of “you may do this, not do this on Sunday,”
we likely will have failed. But if at the end of that time we sense a heart for the One
who is Lord of the Sabbath, then we will have succeeded. Turn in your Bible to the first two
chapters of Genesis, because it is here the issue is introduced. God through Moses, in
Exodus 20, references the creation so we need to start there. Genesis and creation are the
roots of rest. What is it all about? What did God have in mind? When it comes to identifying our time
references, we can for the most part figure it out through science and astronomy. In other
words, how do we know what a day is? That’s the period of time when the earth spins
once on its axis. We have a day. That’s kind of a stellar thing and we realize that
according to the various phases of the moon we come up with a month. We understand about
times around the sun, we come up with a year. We have our day and our month and our year
pretty well figured out in accordance with the heavens. This is true all over the world.
This has always been true. Astronomy has given us our time measurements. No one is sure
where we get the week. It does not correspond satisfactorily to any predictable movement
of the heavenly bodies. Where do we get our week? The honest
scientist will say where did we get it? It had to have been some sort of cultural thing. I
am going to suggest we got it from God. As we look at the account of the creation in the
first chapters of Genesis, this is where it begins. This is the only place historians,
sacred or secular, can find a definition of our 7-day increment, which we call one week. I
find that interesting. We understand and I would suggest we
appreciate the first six days of God’s creation. It starts right off in the first
chapter of Genesis. God said let there be light and there was light, evening and morning
the first day. He continues to create, evening and morning there is a second day and then
there is evening and morning and then there is a third day. I will go on record as a
literal 6-day creationist. The reason I say that is not because things out there don’t
look old because things do look old. But when the Bible says evening and morning, that
says a 24-hour period, in my experience, so I am going to stick with that. How can it be
when things look so old? Why can’t we have theistic evolution? Why can’t we have
tens of thousands, millions of years because everything looks so old? That’s not new
to God. Question: How old was Adam when God created him? Adam, other than not having a
belly button, looked adult. We don’t know how old he was supposed to look. However
old Adam was, how old did Adam appear to be? It was old enough to be married, an adult.
God did that rather quickly. When Jesus went to the wedding in
Canaan of Galilee and turned water into wine, how old was the wine? How old did it appear
to be? “You saved the best till last.” It was the aged stuff. I am going to go with six days. We
especially like day six. Why? Because it is on day six that God said, after creating the
beasts of the field and cattle and so forth, God says in verse 26, “Let us now make
man in our image.” We love it! This is great! This verse should thrill us because
only one creature is so manufactured in the image of God, the creator, and that is people.
Then God said, "Let Us make man
in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His image. In
the image of God He created him, male and female He created and God blessed them. This is
good! God focused His favor on these people and said be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth
and subdue it. Some have pointed out that is really the commandment we have successfully,
seemingly, been able to keep on any consistent basis -- filling the earth and subduing it
and being fruitful and multiplying. God says I have given you every plant-yielding seed
and all over the surface of the earth and so forth. We think this is good. You can read
books and hear sermons and ponder what is called the majesty of man in a good, solid,
biblical sense. So we like day six. But there are not just six days. We
look at ’Genesis 2:2, which says: By the seventh day God created His work, which He
had done. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work, which He had done. The
creation of man, may I suggest, may not be the absolute most important thing God ever did.
Now the creation of man is integral to where God is going, but the day of rest is where
God took it all. What does that mean? Could it be that
this business of the day of rest is a preview of God’s ultimate notion of rest, which
is heaven? Could it be that this is really where it is going? God, in his knowing
everything, realized right out of the block that earth and mankind in limited, finite
form, mortality if you will, and the end of it is not just us on earth. The end of it is
us in heaven with God forever. There is a point to the seventh day, other than, “that’s
all folks.” I think we should pause a moment and
ponder the seventh day of creation. Look at verse 3... Then God blessed the seventh day and
He sanctified it because in it He rested from all His works, which God had created and
made. God rested on the seventh day. What do
we do with that picture? Do we get God a lazy boy or a hammock and say, God, kick back.
God was worn out. This is like Father’s Day in heaven, where God puts his feet up and
kicks back and takes it easy. God did not need a break! One of my favorite Bible verses,
and as time goes by it is more intriguing to me: Psalm 121:4 “God never slumbers nor
sleeps.” God never gets tired. God never needs a nap. He never needs to catch His
breath. Never. So was the seventh day for God to take
a break, or was the seventh day more than that? Let’s take a look a little bit more
closely at the verse. It says that the seventh day is the Sabbath. The Hebrew word is
Shabbat. We probably will hear that word from time to time. Our speaker last week touched
on Shabbat every now and then. The word does not mean Saturday. The word means to cease,
to come to an end. When the judge says cease and desist, that means it is over, it is
done. God ceased from creating. Now in our world, when you are done
with something, when you cease doing it, you are in a state of rest. We call that rest.
Sometimes we rest in a passive sense. That’s when we use the hammock. Other times we
rest more actively. We take a vacation. The Pennsylvania Dutch call that your “off.”
You take your “off.” What do we do on our off? Sometimes we pull our boats. We
go play. If it is wintertime we hit the slopes and go skiing. Are we resting? Actively
perhaps, yes. We are getting away. We are taking a break. We are having a diversion. We
are re-creating in our rest. Some rest is passive and some rest is active. But that is
what we have done to it. That is the human side of it, neither right nor wrong, just the
way it is. But that is what the word means. The word Shabbat, Sabbath, Anglicized, means
to come to an end. Now God took a look at this and it
says that He blessed it. That word means God deliberately and specifically focused His
favor on it. What is interesting about that is that He does not do that with every day. He
blessed creation of fish and birds. He certainly blessed in verse 28 of chapter 1, the
people He had created. But the next blessing is reserved for, of all things, a day. Not a living entity like a fish or bird or person,
but a day, a period of time. I wonder if perhaps that day suggests life. Maybe it does. He
blessed it; He focused His favor on it. It says further that He sanctified it.
This does not sound to me as though God is disinterested in how the day of rest is handled
or addressed. It sounds to me as if from the very beginning God is very interested in His
day, this seventh day notion, this day of rest. I don’t think He is casual about it.
He focuses His favor on it. He blesses it, and then He sets it apart. He sets it apart as
special. Why would He do this? Why even have a day of rest? Why not just seven days a
week? We would figure out that it is a good idea to take a day or two or three off. But we’ll
come up with that on our own, won’t we? Every employer, whether that person is
absolutely biblically illiterate and non-religious would know that it is only smart to
give a person a day or two off if you expect them to perform well. But that is us coming
with it, do you see? How did God come up with it? I am drawn to that. God said set apart
and He focused His favor on it and says there it is, a day, a 24-hour day that God is
saying I regard as supremely special. Why would He do this? I am going to
suggest that it is because God already knows, of course, that the capstone of His creative
work is rest with Him in heaven. That is where it is going. That is what Hebrews 4 says
and also what Revelation says. We will go there later. For now, we are still in Genesis,
where interestingly, in these first chapters of Genesis we see three institutions that God
has ordained. There are three institutions, that is, on-going, sanctioned, permanent human
responsibility in the first two chapters of Genesis: Marriage -- for this cause, a man
shall leave his father and mother, cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. We
say that when we have a wedding and we should, because this is an institution God has
established to optimize His image reflected through people. Unless God specifically calls
an individual to singleness, marriage is the norm and we think marriage is great. Work -- Genesis 1:28, God says to the
people, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and rule.” Be My
stewards. He gives them responsibility in management. He gives them assignments. Work did
not come with the fall. Weeds and thistles and resistance came with the fall. But
responsibility and initiative and industriousness and creativity and productivity, all
that goes into work, that is God’s idea from the beginning. In Genesis 2:15, “The
Lord God took the man, put him into the garden to cultivate and to keep it.” Sabbath -- The third institution is
the Sabbath. God said this is perpetually My plan. Even though we think marriage is great,
we think work is great, we get to the seventh day and for some reason we say, “Oh,
now I don’t know.” The first two are not confusing to us, we understand marriage
and work, why is the third? I realize that I am asking more questions than I am answering.
I have in the past been a
card-carrying member of several trade unions. If you have been or are a union employee,
you understand break time. I worked a job one time down in the Tri Cities of Washington,
building a nuclear reactor. There were at least eight separate construction trade unions
on that job all at the same time. In any event, when it was break time, the steward came
among the workers, “Break, break.” It didn’t matter what you were doing,
everything stopped and we took our break. Later I was a teamster, local 162 out
of Portland. Same thing. Break is break and everything stops on the job and you go take
your break. There are reasons for that. One is that the contract says so. Management does
not have to, but labor does. Contract says you will be given and you will take a break, so
you do that according to the contract. Also, it’s just a good idea to
take a break, to be refreshed and to relax and be distracted maybe for a second before
going back to focus on the job. But also, it had to do with providing equal work for
everybody because if one guy does not take a break, then he is doing work that someone
else could be being paid to do. That is not Hoyle in a union situation. How is it that a break could be so
important on the job, but when God calls a break, we are not so sure we want to take one.
We are not so sure He knows what we need or what He is doing. What’s the point of the
break? It is God’s idea. Clearly it is for refreshment purposes, but I think there is
more. In antiquity, a lot of people groups
had what was called a Sabbath rest, most notably the Babylonians. A study of the ancient
Near East has revealed that Babylonians believed also in a Shabbat. Of course, their
language, though related, said the word a little differently, but the point was on various
days during the course of the year, the Babylonians took a break. They took a day off in
which they did no work whatsoever. Those days fell, with a one-day exception, on a
multiple of the seventh. But their reasoning was a little different. The reason the Babylonians and others
like them took their day off and did no work, did not leave the house, did not travel, the
king made no decisions, everything completely shut down, was because they were attempting
to keep their gods happy. They felt if we just do not do anything, nothing bad will happen
to us. They kind of ran a Murphy’s Law thing. Anything that can go wrong will go
wrong if we work on that day, so they would not. They were sitting back, huddling in their
homes. The king got off the throne, sat somewhere in a quiet spot and rested. Why? Because
they were afraid if they did not, something was going to get them, that the other shoe was
going to drop. They did it out of a sense of fear, superstition, and obligation. I am wondering about us. When God says
it is time to take a day off, His reasons are not superstitious. His reasons are positive
for His people and they are personal for His people. I can remember being in kindergarten.
Many of us remember that time. Do you remember that point during kindergarten, maybe even
first grade, when they said, “OK, everybody, get your mats out. It’s time for
you to rest.” The teacher might read a story. Everybody laid still. Imposed rest. Why? Because whether you
realize it or not, in your lack of perspective, you need it and someone in authority over
you knows what is best. We will revisit this, coming back to Exodus, elsewhere Old Testament, Jesus and the Sabbath as we proceed. But please do yourself a favor, do your family a favor, and re-think God’s emphasis on a day of rest. As I said earlier, I am raising more questions than I am answering. I believe the answers are forthcoming. But please begin to pray, ponder, meditate, and we will come back again, Lord willing, in a week. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |