October 17, 2002
October 2, 2002
I. Introduction:
Throughout this week we have studied different topics. Tonight, we will learn some of the biblical principles about the Sabbath.
A. What are these principles?
1) These are principles that God Himself have ordained.
2) Simple, yet profound.
3) But these principles, if learned properly, transcend more than just the keeping of the Sabbath.
4) It gives us answers as to how we came here, why we are here, and where are we going.
B. May God give us wisdom as we study these principles.
II. Body:
A. One of the centers of contentions
1) Jewish economy
a) Within the Jewish economy, the question about the Sabbath revolves on the keeping of the Sabbath.
b) How to keep the Sabbath properly was the main concern of the religious leaders. The question was not the "when" of the Sabbath but the "how" of the Sabbath.
c) In their attempt to keep the Sabbath properly, religious leaders have devised different regulations on the keeping of the Sabbath.
d) On the Sabbath commandment at all, they have added more than five hundred different regulations.
1. These regulations ranges from the question on how far a person can travel on the Sabbath to the question of what a person can do on the Sabbath.
a. That is why in the New Testament we read some remarks such as a “Sabbath journey,” etc., as a reflection of the regulations that the religious leaders have added from one generation to the next.
e) Consequently, with all the added regulations, the keeping of the Sabbath had become a burden than a delight.
2) Christian Church
a) Within the Christian church, the question about the Sabbath is no longer how to keep the Sabbath, but when is the Sabbath.
1. The question focuses not so much on the principles behind the keeping of the Sabbath, but on the relevance of the Sabbath in our time.
2. And this question about the “when” of the Sabbath is a by-product of a much bigger question—Are God’s Commandments immutable or mutable?
3. Does the Christian church have the right to change God’s command?
4. Are there any in God’s commandments that apply only to the Jewish people and are therefore, no longer relevant within the Christian economy?
b) Within the Christian church, many believe that the Sabbath principles, i.e., resting from our labors, spending time with God, are still applicable in our time. But “when” do you rest from your labor, when do you worship God, has become an individual prerogative. We call this principle “When-it-is-convenient-to-serve-God principle.”
c) The overall principle within the Christian church when it comes to the Sabbath is—“I will choose my Sabbath.”
3) Tonight, we are going to learn that keeping the Sabbath is NOT an individual choice.
4) We will learn that we CANNOT separate the principles of the Sabbath to its application.
B. Principles of the Sabbath. Why do we keep the Sabbath exactly as God have told us in His Law?
1) Sabbath is a memorial of God’s creation
a) Genesis 2:1-3, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
b) Other words for memorial
1. Monument
2. Commemoration
3. Celebration.
4. Tribute
5. Remembrance
6. Honor
7. Marker
c) Sabbath is a monument of God’s creation
1. Illustration: monument for fallen heroes
a) Jose Rizal’s monument in Luneta park
b) Lapu-Lapu’s monument in Mactan
c) Douglas McArthur’s monument in Leyte
2. These monuments are erected in the exact site where the events have taken place.
d) Sabbath is a remembrance of God’s creation
1. It is not surprising that the Sabbath commandment begins with the word “Remember.”
2. The word “remember” does not simply means putting into memory God’s commandments, or reciting the days of creation, or remembering God as the Creator of the world.
3. It is not simply reliance on our memory to remember certain things. Because the truth of the matter is—we often forget.
4. The Sabbath commandment, though it begins with the word “remember,” does not depends its applicability to our lives, or to our time, on the basis of whether we remember it or not.
5. Thesaurus gives us some other words for the word “remember.”
i. Consider
ii. Think
iii. Believe
6. Moses’ words to God’s people clearly define this point about the word “remember.” What does it mean to “remember?”
i. Deuteronomy 11:18-21, “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.”
e) Sabbath is a marker of God’s creation
1. In the infinite nature of time, the Sabbath is a marker.
2. Even before man had the ability to mark the seasons by looking at the moon and the sun, and the stars, God had already mark the time by making the Sabbath.
3. A mark is a point of reference.
4. The Sabbath is not just a marker of time; it is a marker of ownership.
i. Illustration: You own a piece of land
ii. In that piece of land, markers define how big your land is, where your land begins, and where it ends.
iii. In some cases, the markers also define what you have in your property, i.e., mountains, valleys, field of oils, etc.
iv. When you move the marker, you either expand or reduce your property.
5. The Seventh-day Sabbath, therefore, not only tells us who owns or who created the world, but how much or how big is owned.
6. In this case, God is the Creator. But how much did God create depends on where you put the marker.
i. In His wisdom, God put the Sabbath marker at the end of the creation week to encompass all of His creation.
ii. Haggai 2:8, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.”
iii. Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
iv. In essence, when we worship God on the Seventh-day Sabbath, we are not only ascribing ownership to God for the fields and the valleys, but for everything.
a. God owns the seas, oceans, lakes, rivers, and the fish
b. God owns the trees, the vegetations, the flowers, the grass
c. God owns the birds, and the firmament.
d. God owns the cattle of the field, the camels in the desert, and everything.
7. The problem is: Man wants to own a piece of what God had created.
a. Since man could not create on his own, man decided to move the marker of God’s ownership.
b. Reducing God’s ownership to the first day of creation by putting a marker on the first day.
c. Reducing God’s ownership to the second day of creation by putting the marker on the second day, etc.
d. Illustration: Survey of our land revealed that we owned more than what the marker defined.
i. Survey showed that our neighbor had moved the marker to expand his land.
ii. At the end, it led to their great embarrassment. They finally moved out of the place.
f) Sabbath is a commemoration of God’s creation
1) The Sabbath is a celebration of God’s creation.
2) First, we are created wonderfully and fearfully
3) Second, we are equal in the sight of God
4) Third, the Creation narrative was not written just to inform us about what God created on the first day, the second day, the third day, etc., it was written for a purpose.
5) It points forward to the climax or crowning of God’s creation, which is man, and finally, to the celebration of it, which is the Sabbath.
a) God could have celebrated every stage of His creation with a bang. But He did not.
b) Rather, He chose to celebrate after everything was completed.
c) Illustration 1: Birthing process
i. First month—the couple may clean up the room where they want the baby to stay.
ii. Second month—the couple may paint and decorate the room.
iii. Third month—the couple may put the crib
iv. Fourth month—the couple may start buying clothes for the baby.
v. Fifth month—they may put stuff toys in the baby’s crib.
vi. Until finally, the baby is born.
d) Illustration 2: Marriage
i. First year—courtship
ii. Second year—engagement
iii. Third year—marriage
e) In as much as the creation of the trees, the flowers, the animals, are important, they are NOT the focus of the creation story.
f) In as much as the cleaning and painting of the new room, the buying of the crib, and the buying of the clothes are important, they are NOT the focus of the whole birthing process. They only points to the climax of the birthing process—the arrival of the new born and the fellowship that follows after it.
6) To change the celebration of the Sabbath therefore from the Seventh day to the first day, is to miss the point of the Creation narrative.
7) Changing the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day is like reversing the creation story, celebrating the buying of the crib and everything thereof without the baby.
8) Changing the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day is to reduce Christianity into some forms of animistic beliefs, the worship of trees and rivers rather than the worship of the true Creator who is at the head of the creation story.
2) Sabbath is a memorial of Christ’s finished work of redemption.
a) God called His creation “very good.”
b) Unfortunately, it did not last for a long time.
c) Sin managed to enter into the world through the backdoor.
d) As a result, pain, suffering, and death had come into the world.
e) Nevertheless, a beautiful promise was given.
f) Jesus, the Creator, will recreate the whole creation.
1. Not by speaking it again into existence.
2. Not by creating another couple to procreate and fill the earth.
3. This time, Jesus, the Creator, will enter and become part of His creation.
4. He has to be like us.
5. The word “encarnation” describes this whole process.
6. God putting on human flesh.
g) Throughout the Jewish economy, from the time of Adam to Zechariah, everyone among God’s people was looking toward the arrival of the Messiah.
1. The whole Jewish economy centered to the expectation that the Messiah was coming.
2. The services in the temple were daily reminders of the coming Messiah.
3. Their prophecies and songs centered on the coming of the Messiah.
4. The Jewish festivals and celebrations centered on the coming Messiah.
a. The Feast of Tabernacles is a celebration of God’s desire to dwell among them.
5. There was nothing in the Jewish economy that was not centered on the promised Messiah.
6. It is unfortunate that when the Messiah finally came, His people did not know Him.
h) In spite of this reality, Jesus ministered to them. Preached to them the Torah, healed their sickness, performed miracles on their behalf, and lived with them.
i) At the end, He gave Himself for those who refused to receive Him.
j) When did He die?
1. Luke 23:50-56, “And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just: (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.”
2. Even in redemption, the reality of the Seventh-day Sabbath was not changed in any way.
i. Jesus completed his work of redemption in the same manner and timing as when he had created the earth.
3. Even at death, Jesus kept the Sabbath.
k) Biblical texts on the Sabbath as God’s memorial of redemption
1. Ezekiel 20:12, “Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.”
2. Ezekiel 20:20, “And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.”
3. Revelation 7:1-3, “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”
4. Ellen G. White, “Those who desire to have the seal of God in their foreheads must keep the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment. Thus they are distinguished from the disloyal, who have accepted a man-made institution in place of the true Sabbath. The observance of God’s rest-day is a mark of distinction between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.” {RH, April 23, 1901 par. 5}
l) As the Sabbath is a marker of God’s ownership over His creation, the Sabbath is also a marker of God’s ownership over those who have been redeemed from the earth.
3) Sabbath is a memorial of our freedom from sin.
a. The Sabbath year in Leviticus 25
b. Concept of Jubilee in the same chapter
c. What happens during the Jubilee?
1. The land is given a rest
2. Debts are cancelled
3. Slaves are released
4. Families are reunited
d. Christ is our rest.
1. Hebrews 4:9-11, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”
III. Conclusion:
A. Tired of all the burdens that you have to carry around?
B. The Sabbath is God’s solution.
C. The focus of the Sabbath is ultimately God.
D. It was given by God for fellowship and communion.
E. Illustration: First date at a Donut house
