LORD OF THE SABBATH
Do you ever find going to church to be a burden? A religious ritual?
Text: Exodus 20:8 thru 11
I have found it interesting how much has changed since I was a child. Our children may grow tired of hearing us tell them how it used to be, but here goes…
When a lot of us were much (much) younger, Sunday was a very special day.
Example: Even if you had an emergency and you needed a prescription filled at the drug store, you had to call up the owner, and get him or her to come down and open up. The restaurants were closed along with the filling stations and the grocery stores. Oh yeah, and there weren’t any Wal*Marts.
Folks knew the importance of everyone taking a day of rest and go to church.
That way of life was very accepted, and somehow we all made it without buying anything on the “Lord’s Day”.
Times have changed. Today the pendulum has swung in the other direction, and now few people recognize Sunday as the “Lord’s Day”.
Here’s our real world. Most people –
· Now have to work on Sundays (at least from time to time.)
· Are not real sure what (or who) is right when it comes to “keeping the Sabbath holy”.
As children of God, we should –
· Know what is right and what is wrong. We have God’s Word.
· Not have religious biases based on opinion, or even necessarily what we were taught when we were young.
· Have personal convictions that are based exclusively God’s Holy Word.
You see, I want to know how God would have me to live. How about you?
Well, what did Jesus have to say?
Text: Mark 2:23 thru 28
There is book of Jewish traditions called the “Talmud” that has 24 chapters listing various Sabbath laws created by man.
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 wash it. Women were not to look in a mirror; they might pull a gray hair.
When Christ was here on Earth, these Jewish laws were to be strictly adhered to. Here, in Mark 2, the disciples were in violation of these man-made laws.
So the religious Pharisees asked Jesus why they were breaking them.
The answer Jesus gave the Pharisees is what we must also hear today.
Perhaps we have misunderstood and made the Sabbath a ritual, also.
Meeting true human need must always be more important than our customs, our rituals, and even our traditions (of what day we go to church).
Hosea 6:6 "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."
Knowing God and His mercy is more important to us than a day of the week.
I am convinced that Jesus made this even more simple for us when He told the Pharisees in verse 27, one translation says:
“The Sabbath was made to serve man not man serve the day.
Some would say our two texts we have read are a contradiction.
After all, didn’t the Fourth Commandment say we “shall do no work” on the Sabbath?
Caution: Never debate God’s Word.
As Pastor, I am not here to justify the Word of God. Rather, to only simplify it.
The Word of God is without error and never contradicts itself. There are other scriptures that must be considered.
God’s Word has the answer.
Deuteronomy 5:12 thru 15 gives basically the same declaration of the Ten Commandments as we have already read in Exodus 20.
Except in Deut. 5 there’s a reminder God attaches to the Fourth Commandment.
And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath...
So what is the point?
While the children of God were held in bondage in Egypt they were not allowed to do two things that are critically important for every man God has ever created.
Those two things are Rest and Worship.
The bondage of Pharoah was destroying the children of God (in the book of Exodus). Today, the bondage of greed and self-gain is proving to be just as destructive. Work and play have now become the two top priorities.
Nevertheless, Rest and Worship are still the two most important things you can do for your health, yourself, & your family.
Question: is going to church a burden?
A religious ritual?
George Barna statistics - “among people who regularly attend Christian churches;
· 32% have never experienced God’s presence,
· 48% have not experienced His presence in the past year…”
What this means is that - Out of the millions who regularly attend church services, very few experience worship.
For many, going to church has become a ritual… Perhaps the statistics for those who do not rest are similar to those who do not worship.
Many of you know how adamant I am about our church having an even greater emphasis on Spirit filled worship.
We will not settle for anything less than what God expects from us.
We want the “highest of praises and the most intimate of worship.”
The point this morning is that we need & must have Rest and Worship.
Psalms 37:7 "Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him..."
God’s original intent was for the Sabbath to be a blessing not a burden of religion.
The way “it used to be” when I was a child was in many ways just as much a bondage to the children of God as the days we are living in now.
Forty years ago we were burdened with the bondage and extremism of religious thinking. Oftentimes, there was a tight grip on the children that forced them to be religious like their parents, or else…
Religion had become harsh and demanding for that era of time.
Whereas, in this day and time, the extreme has gone in the opposite direction. The religion of some of our upbringing has been replaced with complacency, indecency, disobedience, and yes, even rebellion.
Today, many people refuse to attend church and go through again what they experienced as a child. Sad but true…
Modern man can’t seem to -
· Make-up his mind which way is right.
· Understand the balance and simple reasoning of the teaching that Jesus spoke about to the Pharisees (found in Mark 2).
In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was –
· Originally designated to benefit man and to help him gain rest, and have a revived sense of God’s presence.
· Essentially a day observed by only the Jewish people (which explains why it was not mentioned to the Christians living during the New Testament.)
Then came the New Testament. The new believers didn’t have to be told to go to church and worship the Lord.
The fact still remains that the Jewish day (called the Sabbath) is still celebrated on Saturday. Not Sunday. The Sabbath is still the sixth day of the week.
But the reason we come to church on Sunday is not because of the Sabbath.
We Christians come to church on Sunday because we are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the grave.
Sunday is the day of the week that Jesus conquered death and the grave.
The early New Testament Christians decided that this day, (that is, Sunday), would be their day of rest and worship. Those early believers knew they needed Rest and Worship. They longed to be in the presence of the Lord.
In fact, they realized something that most people have forgotten, nowadays.
The New Testament Christians knew they could not possibly survive if they did not rest and worship the Lord in His Holy Temple one day each week.
Going to church was a priority.
Nevertheless, some of the New Testament believers wanted to go back to the religious days of the week for the sake of tradition. I am certain of this when I read Galatians 4:1 thru 11.
Allow me to summarize with just verses 9 thru 11 from The Living Bible. See if modern man is still struggling with this.
9(b) …how can it be that you want to go back again and become slaves once more to another poor, weak, useless religion of trying to get to heaven by obeying God’s laws?
10 You are trying to find favor with God by what you do or don’t do on certain days or months or seasons or years.
11 I fear for you. I am afraid that all my hard work for you was worth nothing.
Herein lies our problem. Many people (in our day) are thinking like the Pharisees did in Mark chapter 2 and Galatians 4. They are looking for, and focused on, a day of the week instead of the Father of all time, the Creator of every day, and the Savior Who has rescued us from the bondage of the sin of religion.
To be accurate, we must again remind ourselves that Sunday is the first day of the week, and not the last. We must learn that we should start off each week as we should start off each day.
That is, in the presence of the Lord.
Legalism in the church has always been a problem for well meaning Christians. We live in a day where legalism in the church has tried to force feed what morality is.
(And that is why we have so many different denominations, instead of the unity God planned for us to have.)
In the meantime, many have forgotten the importance of Rest and Worship.
Let’s learn to put worshipping Jesus first and foremost in our lives and we won’t be bound by religious people and ideas.
Isn’t it funny how religious people can tell anyone they had better be in church come Sunday, or else.
And yet, they will be in Wal Mart and Ryans Steak House that same afternoon?
Let’s remember to talk to our friends and relatives about Jesus, not necessarily the day of the week…
The question really is – “What is it that comes between you and Resting and Worshipping one day in a given week?”
Billy Graham once said, “Jesus tells us it is OK to help our ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath. But, if your ox gets in the ditch every Sabbath, you need to either get rid of the ox or fill up the ditch.”
Some of us may need to either –
· Fill up the ditch.
· Or, sacrifice the OX.
Let me make that more relevant to some of us. (This may upset you) but if your television keeps you from being in church, you may need to get rid of your television.
(And that goes for whatever you are watching on Sunday morning, or staying up late Saturday night...)
The same goes for your motorcycle, fishing boat, fishing pole, hunting rifle or even your golf clubs.
It has been said, “We tend to worship our play, and play at our worship.”
Let us declare that Christ is Lord of the Sabbath and every other day of the week. Whether we have to work or not.
All of this while keeping in mind –
Colossians 2:16 "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days:"
That is why this Pastor won’t call you up and accuse you of skipping church.
But I will call if I think you are in trouble.
Speaking of “trouble, here’s what “troubles” me:
Many families are in the habit of asking the $64,000.00 question Sunday morning, “Honey, are we going to go to church today?”
Here’s is a rough rule of thumb:
If your excuse for staying home on Sunday is a valid excuse you could use with your job on Monday, then maybe you need to stay home…
So, again, what are the two most important things we need for our health, our selves, and our families?
Rest and Worship.
Our culture is telling us differently:
We are taught the Great American Way–
· Work hard,
· Make more money than we need,
· Be more successful.
· Do whatever it takes…seven days a week…24/7
And yet, we have forgotten the importance of Rest and Worship.
I hear many people excuse themselves from God’s House (on Sunday) because they had to work, and yet they were back home by 3 or 4 that afternoon.
Perhaps America has forgotten what Hebrews 10:25 says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching."
Close:
Questions:
· Is the “day approaching”, or not?
· Are you doing as the Forth Commandment has told you to?
· Is your day of Rest and Worship a priority in your life, and in the life of your family?
· Will you allow yourself to work more than you should, instead of being in the House of God?
· Will you allow family gatherings to take priority over you (and your family) getting that much needed day of Rest and Worship?
Jesus said it even better in Matt. 11:28-30 "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
