Illus: This reminds me of a young boy that found himself in the locker room of the local YWCA. When he was spotted, the room burst into screams of horror, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover.
The little boy watched in amazement and said “What’s the matter haven’t you ever seen a little boy before?”
The Jewish Sabbath was Saturday, the day the Jews set aside for worship each week. After the resurrection, Christians began to worship on Sunday, the first day of the week.
Every Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, but in actuality, every time we come together on the LORD’S DAY, it is to celebrate His resurrection.
The Jews had very strict rules about the Sabbath. Even to this day, if you visit Israel you will discover that almost every Jewish business in town is shut down. The Jews have always had a high regard for their Sabbath.
Illus: When Joe Liberman was running with Al Gore, for Vice President of the United States, he restricted his campaigning on Saturdays because it was his Sabbath.
Some of the strictness of the Jewish Sabbath has transferred over to Christianity. For example, do you remember the old blue laws?
The term "blue laws" originally applied to laws enacted by the Puritans in the seventeenth-century to regulate moral behavior, especially what people must or must not do on the Sabbath.
When these laws were broken, it called for rather harsh punishments to be applied to offenders. Originally, these blue laws specified penalties for moral offenses such as:
• Failure to attend church on Sunday
• Lying
• Swearing
• Drunkenness
• The playing of games in public (such as cards, dice, and shuffleboard)
They also mandated more severe punishments for crimes committed on Sunday, and regulated the sale and consumption of alcohol.
Violators of blue laws:
• Might be assessed monetary fines
• Might be whipped
• Might be forced to spend time in the stocks
• Might have body parts burned or cut off
• Might even receive the death penalty
As the influence of the colonial Puritan theocracies declined after the American Revolution, the blue laws began to be ignored.
Why were these regulations called "Blue laws"? With no obvious explanation at hand, many seem to think it came from the fact they were written on blue paper or bound in books with blue covers. There is no actual proof this is why they are called Blue Laws, but this is where some suppose the name came from. And if we are going to guess, this is probably as good as anything!
When many of us were children, we can remember that many stores were closed on Sunday. Sunday was viewed as the equivalent to the Old Testament Jewish Sabbath Day. It was to be a day of rest and worship. In many Christian homes, Sunday was observed with almost the same rigidity the Pharisees forced upon the Jews.
Today the pendulum has swung almost to the opposite extreme, where not only in our society but also in many Christian homes there is almost no importance placed on the Lord's Day.
• There was a time when adults would not think of taking a job that required them work on the Lord’s Day.
• There was a time when parents would not allow their children to find a job that required them to work on Sunday.
• There was a time when people would not think of playing sports on the Lord’s Day. Today, they have little league baseball practice, car races, and professional football on the Lord’s Day.
Today the Lord’s Day is like any other day, and THIS IS NOT GOOD!
Illus: An atheist said, “Before we can destroy Christianity we must first destroy their day of worship.”
This seems to be something that Satan has done very successfully.
We certainly do not want to return to the nonsense days of the early Puritans, but when it comes to the day of worship, we need to ask ourselves some questions, such as:
• What was the purpose of the Sabbath?
• Are Christians commanded to observe the Sabbath?
• Is the Lord's Day the Sabbath?
• What should our attitude be toward the Lord's Day?
To help us answer these questions, let's look at Mark 2:23-28.
First we see...
I. THE ENCOUNTER ON THE SABBATH DAY
Look at verses 23-24, we read, “And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?”
Jesus and His disciples were walking through a field of grain on the Sabbath, on their way to worship at the synagogue. The disciples were hungry and decided to pluck some of the grain.
Illus: They did not have roadside restaurants as we have today, so when they got hungry, the Bible says they plucked some of the grain to eat.
While the Old Testament law regarding the keeping of the Sabbath in no way prohibited picking a handful of grain to satisfy one's immediate hunger, the Pharisees and Scribes ADDED MANY RULES AND REGULATIONS that were nothing more than man-made traditions.
These traditions were rigid concerning Sabbath observance. For example, the Talmud, the book of Jewish traditions, has 24 chapters listing various Sabbath laws.
• On the Sabbath, you could not travel more than 3,000 feet from your house
• You were not allowed to carry anything that weighed more than a dried fig
• You couldn't carry a needle for fear you might sew something
• Taking a bath was forbidden -- water might splash on the floor and the woman of the house would wipe it up
• Women were not to look in a mirror; they might pull a gray hair
When the disciples plucked some grain, some of the Pharisees charged these disciples with violating two of man's traditional Sabbath laws:
• Plucking the grain
• Rubbing them in their hands
Let’s be honest, these disciples had not broken the laws of almighty God! Not in the slightest!
Illus: Speaking of honesty reminds me of the little five-year old who came into his dad’s bedroom screaming because he had dropped his tooth brush into the commode.
The dad went into his bathroom and fished it out and threw the toothbrush away.
The little boy ran to his father’s bathroom and came back with a smile on his face while he held his dad’s tooth brush in his hands, he said, “We better throw this one out too then, cause it fell in the toilet a couple of weeks ago.”
Let’s get honest here; these disciples had not violated the laws of God concerning the Sabbath, but they were being charged with doing just that!
We have looked at, THE ENCOUNTER ON THE SABBATH DAY, but also let’s look at-
II. THE EXAMINATION OF THE SABBATH DAY
Look at verses 25-26, we read, “And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?”
To prove his case, the Lord Jesus cited the account of David in the Old Testament, who did something similar to what His disciples had done.
Look at 1 Samuel 21:1-6, we read, “Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the showbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.”
The Lord knew these Jews held King David in high regards. David, in fleeing from Saul, took five loaves of the showbread that was to be eaten only by the priests, and gave them to his men.
This man of God was justified in breaking the ceremonial law because his need for sustenance was greater than keeping the ceremonial law.
Isn’t it interesting how we can let someone get by with something if we like them, but if we do not, we are not willing to cut them any slack whatsoever. We see favoritism in so many ways today:
• It can be seen in the home
• It can be seen in society
• It can be seen on the job.
• It can be seen in the classroom
It is amazing how we can allow some folks to get away with something but if someone else does the same thing, we hold their feet to the fire.
These Pharisees did not like the Lord or His disciples, and they were going to find fault even though King David did the same thing.
Meeting true human need and compassion takes precedence over custom, ritual, ceremony and tradition.
We have looked at THE ENCOUNTER ON THE SABBATH DAY and THE EXAMINATION OF THE SABBATH DAY, but also let’s look at-
III. THE EXPLANATION OF THE SABBATH DAY
Look at verses 27-28, we read, “And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”
The word Sabbath here is transliteration of the word “Shabath” which means - to cease or desist - hence rest or cessation from labor.
Exodus 20:9-11 says, "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."
But these Jews carried the teachings of the Sabbath to the extreme.
Illus: When Antiochus Epiphanes massacred a group of Jews under the command of Judas Maccabaeus, the Jews refused to defend themselves because it was the Sabbath.
God wanted the Sabbath to teach the Jews a very valuable lesson. In Deuteronomy the Lord reminds His people that they had been slaves in Egypt and that He had brought them out from there.
Look at Deuteronomy 5:12-15, we read, “Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.”
In commanding them to observe the Sabbath, the weekly rest would remind them of a time when as slaves they were unable to rest. When they were serving under the bondage of Pharaoh, they worked like animals, seven days a week. But now, God wanted them to set aside the Sabbath to remind them that they had no REST, and now through God’s deliverance they have REST!
God's original intent was for the Sabbath to be a blessing not a burden. But the Pharisees and the Scribes had made it a burden.
The Lord alluded to them in Matthew 23:4, "For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."
The Sabbath was to benefit man, to help him gain rest and to have a revived sense of God's presence.
Illus: God meant for the Sabbath to be like the old alarm clocks that had to be wound. They worked fine until they ran down and had to be rewound occasionally. And it has been proven over and over again, that people who will take ONE DAY A WEEK to refresh themselves are more effective than those who work seven days a week.
Rest is essential to effectiveness.
Illus: One of the reasons that companies give “Rest Breaks” is because employees are more productive with a break than without a break.
God has designed these bodies so they are at their best when we take one day to set aside and reflect on the God who created us.
Nowhere in Scripture is the Christian commanded to observe the Sabbath. The Sabbath was essentially Jewish, which explains its absence in New Testament instructions to Christians.
The Sabbath was the sixth day. It began at sunset Friday and ran through sunset Saturday. The Lord's Day is the first day of the week corresponding to our Sunday.
Illus: Dr, J. Vernon McGee tells a story about a man who wanted to argue about the Sabbath. The man said, "I'll give you $100 if you will show me where the Sabbath day has been changed."
McGee answered, "I don't think it has been changed. Saturday is Saturday, it is the seventh day of the week, and it is the Sabbath day. I realize our calendar has been adjusted, and can be off a few days, but we won't even consider that point. The seventh day is still Saturday, and it is still the Sabbath day."
He got a gleam in his eye and said, "Then why don't you keep the Sabbath day if it hasn't been changed?" McGee answered, "The DAY hasn't changed, but I have been changed. I've been given a new nature now, I am joined to Christ; I am a part of the new creation. We celebrate the first day because that is the day He rose from the grave."
The early church set aside the Lord's Day as a day of rest, worship, and celebration of Christ's resurrection.
• Look at Acts 20:7, "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight."
• Look at 1 Corinthians 16:2, "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come."
• Look at Revelation 1:10, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet"
Conclusion:
The Bible clearly teaches that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Illus: Warren Wiersbe - The ability to calm your soul and wait before God is one of the most difficult things in the Christian life. Our old nature is restless...the world around us is frantically in a hurry. But a restless heart usually leads to a reckless life.
You see, for these religious leaders, worship had become a series of “do’s” and “don’ts”. The Sabbath was a day when certain activities were permitted and others weren’t.
Many churches today have added their man-made regulations to what it means to be a Christian. To them, Christianity is a list of “Do’s” and “Don’ts”. They go so far as to say that if you do this or don’t do that, you can’t be saved.
When a Christian is in a church like this, they need to find another church. Bible-believing churches that preach the Word of God, only preach the Word of God. You can never go wrong listening to the Word of God.
We have looked at:
I. THE ENCOUNTER OF THE SABBATH DAY
II. THE EXAMINATION OF THE SABBATH DAY
III. THE EXPLANATION OF THE SABBATH DAY
