Message
Colossians 2:13-19
“Don’t Just Be Religious”
In Israel they have “Sabbath elevators”. This elevator is designed to automatically stop at every floor – even if no one is going in or out.
That is because pushing the button for the elevator is work, and even today there are many Jews who have rules about working on the Sabbath.
This means Sabbath elevators end up having long queues. If you are Gentile in Israel you can go into the push button elevators – the ones with no queue. As soon as you do that the elevator will fill up with Jewish people who will say:-
Can you please push button 11.
I’m getting off at level 6.
Level 13 please.
They won’t work, but they don’t mind if a Gentile does the work for them.
I’m not trying to make fun of Jews. Rather this is an example of what happens when we turn grace into law. And Jews are not the only ones who do this – Christians do as well.
Sunday was the day when you put on your Sunday clothes, and you didn’t get dirty.
You never went to the shop on Sunday.
The only reason you wouldn’t be in church is if you were really sick. If you were on holidays for the weekend you would make sure and go to that church.
You didn’t do house-work, or wash a car.
Sometimes you were not even allowed to have fun.
It is a bit different now – and maybe we live in a time when Sunday has become too much of a free-for-all – but there was a time when Sunday was observed like this.
Which makes preaching on the fourth commandment an interesting exercise. Because no matter what you preach people will either say I am being too relaxed about how Sunday is used, or they will say I am putting people under some sort of law.
Part of the issue comes from the reality that, out of the 10 commandments, only 9 of them are expressly repeated in the New Testament. A few examples.
Commandment 1:- “No other Gods before Me”.
1 Corinthians 8:6: - “There is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live.”
Commandment 5:- “Honour your father and mother.”
Ephesians 6:1:- “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”
Commandment 10:- “Do not covet.”
Luke 12:15:- “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
However the command to honour the Sabbath day is not repeated in the New Testament.
The closest we get is Hebrews 10:24-25:-
“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.”
Which doesn’t command a one-in-seven cycle and is in a context where apostasy and giving up on God completely is the main problem.
Indeed when you look at the New Testament you can see why people are reluctant to make rules about how a Sunday is used. Let’s read a few passages.
Colossians 2:13-19
Matthew 12:1-14
When you put these passages together you can see why there are some who conclude that regular attendance at church is not necessarily the greatest priority.
But there is another part of us that recognises you can’t just make it a free-for-all either.
So, when it comes to the 4th commandment, this seems to be the important question.
How do we show grace, but also recognise the importance of coming together on a Sunday, and other times, in fellowship.
Well, we do what we always do, we go back to Scripture and have a close look and then let Scripture determine the answers. In this case let’s go back to the 4th Commandment.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labour 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.
Exodus 20:8-11
But also note that the command in Deuteronomy gives another reason for Sabbath keeping.
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.
Deuteronomy 5:15
Keeping it holy
This helps us to understand what we are to do with this day.
When you make something holy you set it apart – it is the same as other days – but also different. So the issue, when it comes to the sabbath, is how do I make the day different?
The difference is not about setting up a whole heap of restrictions – and then using those restrictions to judge the actions of others.
The difference comes because we remember that a huge transformation has taken place.
As Paul says in Colossians:-
• God made us, who were dead in sin, alive.
• The regulations are nailed to the cross.
Because of this we are not defined by how we act, we are defined by who we serve.
We need to be taking time to remember and celebrate this reality.
And that takes a bit of planning and organising and deliberate action.
Having a sabbath … a one-in-seven break … is not about aimlessly making it through the day.
The idea of the sabbath is to get us to have those times when we specifically keep our focus on God.
Usually at this point there are many people who say, “Yes but I can keep my focus on God anytime.”
And that is true – but do you?
You can keep your focus on God when picking up the kids from school – but do you?
You can keep your focus on God at work – but do you?
I’m not judging, I’m just stating an obvious reality. The reality of life is that we are usually too busy, or too distracted, or too lazy to constantly keep our focus on God.
Theologically we say, I can approach God any time and be in a close connection with Him. But pragmatically we don’t do that. In fact we have a tendency to put our relationship with God further and further down the “to-do” list.
And God doesn’t want to leave us in that spiral.
Having the one-in-seven cycle gives us that weekly reminder that we have a God who wants to be in that closer relationship with us. It isn’t about the law, it is about God helping us to enjoy our relationship with Him.
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. God did this so that you can have a day where you can 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.
This one-in-seven cycle is important.
Which is why another aspect of the command needs our attention.
Labour for six days … then stop.
This is an important part of the command that many miss. The fourth commandment is not just a command about the sabbath – it is a command directed to your work life.
Do you remember the Mars bar advertisement? “A Mars a day helps you work, rest, and play!”—
It is a reminder that we all need a rhythm in our lives.
God knows this more than Mars Company.
So God says “Look at Me. I worked for six days then stopped on the seventh. What makes you think that you are better than me. If God could take a rest, so can you! God is God and you are not. Rest reminds us we are not indispensable, and whenever we sleep the world goes on just fine without us!
So it isn’t so much about God saying, “You have to stop for a day and focus on Me.” Rather God is saying, “If you don’t stop and focus on me, you’re going to hurt yourself.”
We need to understand that the greatest blessings in our life do not come from our work and labour. By this I am not saying that stay-at-home mums are not working. Or those who are unemployed are not working. Or students are not working. Or the retired are not working.
What we need to understand is that we have responsibilities – our labour in whatever form that takes – retirement, unemployment, study, our vocation, home life.
And because we put so much time into these things we think they are the source of our greatest blessings.
But they are not the source.
The first commandment says, “There is only one God”.
The second commandment says, “Worship God only – no idols”.
But sometimes we worship those aspects of our lives to which we give a lot of time.
Sometimes our god can be called “job”, or “uni” or “health,” or “marriage,” or “children,” or “leisure”, or “sport” and we don’t allow ourselves the time to stop and focus on God.
Some of us are killing ourselves because of our job.
Some of us are killing ourselves to meet family expectations.
Some of us are killing ourselves because we are too involved in the community.
So here is some Godly wisdom.
If you don’t take a Sabbath voluntarily, you’ll take a Sabbath involuntarily.
We call it stress, depression, ulcer, burnout, heart attack, hospitalization.
The question is not, are you going to stop? The question is, are you going to stop joyfully or painfully?
Labour for six days … then stop.
This is not a demand for a mandatory day of worship. It is an act of grace to protect you so that can actually enjoy your relationship with Jesus.
I would be very discouraged, grieved, and saddened if my children never came and sat with me. “Well Dad, I’ve got to do the dishes. Now I’ve got to pull weeds. Now I’ve got to do homework. I’m going to wash the car, and I’ve got to clean the garage, and I’ve got to, got to, got to—”
“You know what, I’m your dad. You do need to do your chores, you do need to do your homework. But you also need to spend time with your dad because it’s good for you. And your dad loves you, and your dad wants to spend time with you. Your dad wants to make memories with you.”
I want you to hear this, not in terms of a lawgiver giving a law, but as Father-God giving wise counsel to children. A Dad who is looking at his kids in love, “You kids are going to burn yourself out. Come sit on the couch with Dad.”
“We don’t have time.”
No, trust me, you do. You do. I’m saving yourself from yourself.
And we know God is right on this.
How many times have you had it when you have an opportunity to fellowship:- church, small groups, prayer meetings, fellowship events.
You have got this event ahead of you … but you are tired, or the kids are a nuisance, or you have too much on your plate, or you are feeling a bit slack, or you don’t think you will be missed.
You have a choice.
You choose not to go.
You miss out on fellowship and encouragement. Others miss out on having your presence there as well. You don’t get a chance to catch-up and be encouraged. You get to the end of the day and think “This didn’t feel like a Sunday”. You hear later that you missed out on a really wonderful time.
Or you choose to go.
People see you are tired and ask how you are going – they give you some prayer.
The message is exactly what you needed to hear.
You leave feeling much more energised then when you came.
You’re glad you were there.
It is very rare – it happens but it is very rare – when you come together with fellow believers and you walk away feeling much worse than when you came. Usually the opposite is true.
You struggle to go. You decide to go. You are really glad you did.
God knows what we are like and God knows what we need.
And, at the very least, we need a one-in-seven cycle. Not as a rule. But because God wants us to be free to enjoy Him. Growing in him as we gather as His people.
So, for the sake of being able to enjoy God … let’s sabbath.
Let’s continue to see the gracious blessing of that one-in-seven cycle
We do it because we know that Jesus has completed all the work needed for our salvation.
Once the work is done, all that remains is that we trust in his finished work. So, on our Sabbath day, what we’re remembering is my relationship with God did not begin with what I’ve done, it is not sustained by what I do.
I’m here today to enjoy God, not try and earn His favour.
The wonderful part of that is that I get to spend time with other great people who have the same focus.
Sometimes we get so busy working on the house, the car, and the job, that we forget people. And I’ll tell you what, there’s only one thing you’re going to take with you into the kingdom of God, and that’s the people of God. All the other stuff is going to stay here. The people of God—we go together forever.
You and I should be people who seek not to live with regret. “I never got with them. I never followed up with them. I never had a meal with them. I didn’t pursue a friendship with them because I just didn’t have time because the things in my life pushed out the people in my life.” Sabbathing is a time to connect with people.
And as we sabbath let’s keep remembering that we are doing exactly what God did.
Labour for six-days – and then rest.
That was the pattern for God when there was no sin in this world.
It continued to be the pattern God encouraged after he saved the Israelites from slavery.
God knows what we need.
Trust God to help you in your needs … and know the freedom to enjoy Him.
Prayer
