Dakota Community Church
July 27, 2014
Sabbath Keeping
Summer Series at Dakota: The 10 Commandments
Exodus 20:8
Remember the Sabbath day, to 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, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the 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.
Introduction:
I wonder how many of you have encountered this phenomenon in your journey in Christ.
A great conspiracy, so it seems, has taken place.
It happened so long ago that everyone has by now accepted the lie and forgotten God’s original intent for Christianity.
All the churches have been duped or are corrupted by the teaching of the conspirators.
Now at long last the Lord has appeared in some form to some special leader with the “truth”.
Now at last there is a fresh understanding of what the scriptures are really saying.
Almost always there is some sort of a nod to the idea of salvation by faith alone, HOWEVER, there’s more to it than that. Sure the gospel gets us in but now what does the Lord require to stay in? It’s JESUS plus… something.
Enter the Sabbatarians, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Hebrew Roots Movement, or as the bible refers to all of them; the Judaizers.
[In the early church, those who taught a combination of God’s grace and human effort were called “Judiazers.” The word Judaizer comes from a Greek verb meaning “to live according to Jewish customs.” The word appears in Galatians 2:14 where Paul describes how he confronted Peter for forcing Gentile Christians to “Judaize.”]
Many who encounter the seemingly always zealous adherents to this brand of error are left with doubts about the surety of their own salvation and a nagging fear that they are displeasing God.
Let’s begin by putting that notion to rest first:
Colossians 2:16-19
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
The ceremonial laws are called hukkim or chuqqah in Hebrew, which literally means “custom of the nation”; the words are often translated as "statutes." These laws are not obvious to common sense; for example, the destruction of perfectly good animals for sacrifice and the rejection of food sources such as pork and rabbit. Instead, these statutes seem to focus the adherent's attention on God. They include instructions on regaining right standing with God (e.g., sacrifices and other ceremonies regarding "uncleanness"), remembrances of God's work in Israel (e.g., feasts and festivals), specific regulations meant to distinguish Israelites from their pagan neighbours (e.g., dietary and clothing restrictions), and signs that point to the coming Messiah (e.g., the Sabbath, circumcision, Passover, and the redemption of the first-born)
So Christians are not required to observe the ceremonial laws that were given to the nation of Israel partially for the purpose of pointing toward or foreshadowing the coming of Messiah.
When it comes to the question of Christian Sabbath keeping I want to make three points:
1. More than when the Saints gather
There is far more to keeping the Sabbath than moving service times to Saturday.
The Torah defines what it means to keep or break the Sabbath.
Leviticus 23:32
It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.
Sabbath must be observed from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday - “from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath”
Exodus 31:12-17
And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all 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. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
No work can be done on the Sabbath. It is wholly a day of rest and you don't keep the Sabbath unless you enforce the Sabbath with the death penalty. Remember the man caught gathering sticks in Numbers 15?
Exodus 35:2-3
Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. 3 You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.
If you turn your furnace on during the winter on the Sabbath, you're a Sabbath breaker. Really is it really meant to be taken that seriously?
Exodus 16:23
“This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’”
If you bake or boil food on the Sabbath, you're a Sabbath breaker
Exodus 16:29
See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”
Remember the term “A sabbath day’s journey”?
That's because if you travel far from your home, you're a Sabbath breaker!
Numbers 28:9-10
On the Sabbath day, two male lambs a year old without blemish, and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with oil, and its drink offering: 10 this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.
You can’t say the day of the week still applies but the sacrifice doesn’t.
Based on how the Torah defines what it means to keep the Sabbath, who can say that they're a Sabbath Keeper?
2. The eighth day
Why the Lord’s day?
Matthew 28:1-2
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
Jesus rose from the dead on the first day!
Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested[a] on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Holy Spirit came to the church on the first day of the week.
Acts 20:6-7
…we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days. 7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
1 Corinthians 16:1-2
Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. 2 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 there will be no collecting when I come.
The early church began meeting on Sunday very early on and the writings of the church fathers confirm this.
The Old Covenant Sabbath was on the last day of the week because it looked ahead to Messiah
The New Covenant looks back to Messiah’s arrival on it’s first day.
3. Substance over shadow
Colossians 2:6-19
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Let No One Disqualify You
16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
The husbands shadow on the tarmac
To participate in Sabbath meant to do ABSOLUTELY NO WORK!
Can anyone guess why?
Jesus is our Sabbath, we find our rest in Him.
And what does the Christian do in order to participate in Christ? - ABSOLUTELY NO WORK!
Looking ahead to the coming end or looking back to the new beginning
The Gospel
Repent and leave washed and forgiven, secure in the perfect righteousness of Christ.
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
Follow Dan on twitter: @DanCormie
