Is the Sabbath Really a Big Deal Today?
Mark 2:23-28
April 2, 2006
Introduction
Today, we’re going to look at one of those issues that quite frankly, can serve as a dividing line between believers.
For some, when you think of the Sabbath, you think straight-jacket – a bunch of rules meant to restrict you from having any fun.
For others, it might mean that it is complete freedom to live for yourself to the fullest, with regard to no one or no thing else.
Well, I think that by the time we get done today, you’ll find that the Sabbath is really neither one of these.
My hope is to lay down some principles from Scripture that will help you as you think through this deal.
It could be that you’ll get some questions answered about just how you should observe the Sabbath. But to be very truthful, you may end up leaving with as many questions as you had before.
Why? Because this is an issue that at some fronts doesn’t have many answers from Scripture.
So if you’re looking for some clear-cut instructions on what you should or shouldn’t do on the Sabbath, then you’re in for a bit of a disappointment.
Our passage for today is Mark 2:23-28. If you’re using the Bibles in the seats, this is found on page 708.
23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
25 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Let’s pray – Father, I don’t want to get all flowery about this. I just want to know your heart about this Sabbath thing.
And I pray that for all of us today. Give us your heart – and help us love you in words and action as we look at this. Work on us today, I pray. Amen.
As I mentioned last week, the Sabbath is important – at least important enough for Jesus to set down some thoughts that challenged the prevailing regulations that the Pharisees and rabbis had put down over time.
I mentioned last week that the Sabbath has been pushed to the background of Christian thought and experience, because we don’t want to be seen as legalistic and because I think that because in Christ we are free from the law, we think that the Sabbath doesn’t apply anymore.
But is that really the case? Well, let’s look at three questions I want to explore today regarding the Sabbath that I think will help us get a grip on what it means for followers of Jesus. Ready? Here’s the first question:
What was the original purpose of the Sabbath?
The Sabbath was God’s idea in the first place – did you all know that? And the principle is derived from the very beginning of creation.
God created everything in six days, and he rested on the seventh, and made it holy.
Why would God need a rest? Was creation so hard for God?
God: "Hey! I just created a 24-hour period of alternating light and darkness on Earth."
Angel: "What are you going to do now?"
God: "Call it a day." (SermonCentral.com)
Was he just bushed after a hard week’s work?
I mean, he’d just created everything out of nothing, and on the last day, he put people on it, creating them out of the very dust he had just created a few days earlier.
Come to think of it, maybe knowing what people were going to do just kind of took it out of him. Whaddya think?
Folks, God didn’t need to rest because he was tired. He rested because he was done.
Now some of you have no idea what that’s like because you’ve never finished anything you’ve ever started, or at least you know people like that, right?
People have a very hard time knocking off every week, don’t we?
And that is one of the reasons God instituted the Sabbath. Remember Jesus’ words? “The Sabbath was made for man.”
The term “sabbath” literally means “rest.” And that is the essence of the Sabbath – rest.
God created people in such a way that they would need rest every seven days.
And we’re to not only rest, but we are to reflect on the God of Creation.
So the basic purpose of the Sabbath, when you put aside all the fluff and hullabaloo is this: rest for our bodies and refreshment for our spirits.
You set aside the work and you kick back saying, “You are worthy of praise, my Creator. Ahhhhhh.”
Now isn’t that cool? God did for us. He set us an example, and when we follow his example, then we get blessed.
You know, I’d say that only a loving God would think of that, how about you?
The original purpose of the Sabbath was rest for our bodies and refreshment for our spirits. You gotta like that.
But let’s look at the second question in looking at this issue, and that is…
What is the purpose of the Sabbath for Christians?
We need to look back now at verses 27-28 of our passage in Mark, because we find some very important words of Jesus:
"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Jesus is claiming the right to interpret sabbath rules as the authoritative Son of Man, and he’s using that authority to claim that human beings had authority to do what they needed on the sabbath. —Bible Background Commentary
And what was the most important need to be taken care of the Sabbath?
Rest for our bodies and refreshment for our spirits. You see, the Sabbath was instituted by God for mankind’s benefit and refreshment.
And Jesus was trying to say that this doesn’t happen when people were made to keep burdensome regulations pertaining to it.
Living under the heavy yoke of man-made rules is not good. It does not make it easy for a person to gain the benefits of the Sabbath, which was made for the benefit of people.
So the basic purpose of the Sabbath, when you put aside all the fluff and hullabaloo is this: rest for our bodies and refreshment for our spirits. You set aside the work and you kick back saying, “You are worthy of praise, my Creator. Ahhhhhh.”
Now, didn’t I just say that a few minutes ago about the original purpose of the Sabbath?
That’s right – don’t adjust your sets – I said it twice. For a reason.
Because the basic purpose of the Sabbath has not changed since God instituted it.
The problem was that it had become this straightjacket of rules and regulation so bent on making sure you rested that people were forgetting just whose idea it was in the first place – God’s!
Jesus said that we needed to strip that away and focus on the real purpose of the Sabbath.
But now this leads us to the third question for today, and that is…
What principles should guide how we observe the Sabbath today?
This is a very important question, because while it’s true that we don’t want to live under a bunch of Pharisaical laws about the Sabbath, the fact of the matter is that the Sabbath is still there for us to observe, or at least that what I think is the principle of Scripture.
So what I want to do here is not lay down a bunch of rules, but rather, I want to give you some principles that I think will serve you well in getting together with God about this, okay?
And before I get too far with this, let me just say that I’m going under the premise that the Christian Sabbath is on Sunday.
The Jewish Sabbath is Friday evening to Saturday evening, but the early church moved it to Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of Christ and for other reasons.
And I’m not going to be legalistic about that, either. But the general practice and thought about the Sabbath for followers of Christ is that it falls on Sunday.
Here’s the first principle I want to pass on:
1. Remember the purpose of the Sabbath.
Remember the purpose of the Sabbath? Rest for our bodies and refreshment for our spirits.
Can you ditch the broken record, Pastor? For those of you who don’t know what records are, just ask your parents or grandparents to show you some. They’ve probably got ’em stored next to their 8-tracks…
But I can’t stop talking about this. Because any discussion about the Sabbath needs to come back to that.
All my wrestling and struggling with this in my own life always comes back to this, because it’s the Scriptural focus about it.
God created the Sabbath so you could have a break – we need the rest to refresh our bodies and our spirits. And God created you to need that.
Here’s a phrase that might come in handy: You are released FROM work and released TO rest and worship.
Taking work home from the office is not resting. The idea is that you need to cease the regular activity of your work on the Sabbath.
You know what I find that a lot of people do on the Sabbath? And I’m guilty of this, too. God has been convicting me of this. I’ve found that a lot of people just use the Sabbath as an excuse to substitute one kind of work for the other.
For example – you work hard all week, but when you quit there for the week, you come home and fill your time with all sorts of other work – painting the kitchen, cleaning the garage, mowing the lawn, avoiding your mother-in law, or whatever.
Now, I know what you’re thinking – that you’re doing the stuff on the weekends that you can’t do during the week. I understand that.
But do you have to get it all done at once? Can you take one day out of the weekend to rest?
I hope so, because you need it – whether or not you realize or believe it. So remember the purpose of the Sabbath. Here’s the second principle:
2. Don’t worship the day or “rules” of the Sabbath, worship the God of the Sabbath.
The big question that is usually asked when talking about the Sabbath is, “What is allowed or not allowed on the Sabbath?”
Can you eat out? Can you go to the movies? Can you watch or play sports?
Well I could give you my opinions about all that, and the plain fact of the matter is that my opinion should not be the determining factor.
Look at this passage from Romans that I’ve printed in your note-taking guide –
Romans 14:5-8 –
5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
The basic idea of this passage is that how you observe the Sabbath is between you and God. You need to be convinced in your own mind, after prayerful consideration of not only the activity, but your motives behind them.
But let me give you a caution: don’t get so caught up in what you allow that you allow pride to creep in and forget God in the process.
Here’s what I mean: I love to watch baseball games and John Wayne movies. You probably didn’t know that – it’s one of my most closely guarded secrets.
But two things can happen if I’m not careful:
First, I can start getting prideful by comparing myself to someone who doesn’t think that watching baseball or movies is honoring to God on the Sabbath. And I can think, “Oh well, when they get as spiritually mature as I am, they’ll get over it.” That’s prideful, and it’s not good.
The second thing that can happen is that I allow these activities to actually get in the way of allowing God to speak to me through worship here and at home as I rest.
I can’t allow these to push God out of the picture. And if they do, then I need to not do them.
I need to get rest for my body and refreshment of my spirit through worship.
Because God demands it? Nope – because I need it. Folks, worship not only blesses God, it benefits us.
So rather than worship the day or the do’s and don’ts, worship God. Honor God with your Sabbath activities.
Here’s the third principle about observing the Sabbath today:
3. It is good to do good on the Sabbath.
Jesus allowed his disciples to feed themselves on the Sabbath, and even the OT law made sure animals were taken care of.
We all have daily needs that need to be taken care of. We need to eat, maybe throw some coal in the furnace, or whatever. God never says we’re to forget those things.
But let me give you something else to ponder:
If you’re anything like me, then when we do get the opportunity to rest, we tend to think only of ourselves.
After all, we’ve put in a long week, and we need the rest.
But I’m wondering if it wouldn’t do us a bit of good to see if there isn’t someone else we can bless on occasion on the Sabbath.
After all, Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. So I think it’s appropriate as people who call themselves followers of Christ to think about how we can help others, just as Jesus did.
Maybe have someone over to eat, mow someone’s lawn that you know can’t do it themselves, take some groceries to someone who may not have enough.
I don’t know what it would be. Let God give you some ideas.
I’m just suggesting that we not forget that the Sabbath is more than just a day off. It’s also an opportunity to be a blessing for others.
Conclusion
As I was finishing up this message, I found that I had unintentionally and unconsciously been avoiding a key word in regard to the Sabbath.
You know what that word is? Commandment.
Did you know that one of the 10 Commandments is to keep the Sabbath?
You know why I think I was trying to avoid it?
I think I was doing it for a couple reasons. I think one of the reasons is because it’s the only one of the 10 Commandments Jesus didn’t explicitly repeat, like he did all the others. He mentions the Sabbath, obviously, but he doesn’t seem to press the issue of absolutely having to observe it like the other commandments.
And the other reason I think I was avoiding it was because deep down I was hoping you would want to take advantage of the opportunity God gives us every seven days to refresh our bodies and spirits.
But here’s something else that comes to mind in this regard. Why should God have to command us to take a rest? I think that it’s because if we get busy enough, we’ll forget about God.
We’ll be too busy for him.
So the devil gives us lots of stuff to keep our minds occupied so we don’t think about God and how to love him and serve him.
It’s been said that one the devil’s most effective tools isn’t evil people, but rather busy Christians. Busy Christians become casual Christians who have nothing to offer the world that the world doesn’t already have.
Have you noticed that none of the 10 Commandments is “Read the Bible and pray daily.” Or even, “Go to church?”
But we’re commanded to observe the Sabbath. I think it’s so we can refocus on God for at least one day a week.
Doing this brings what? Rest for our body and refreshment for our soul.
So what are you going to do with this? I hope you’ve decided that you’re going to be intentional about observing the Sabbath.
Not for my sake – to be able to tell the Pastor that you’re doing it. Not for the sake of being able to show off how holy you think you are.
But for the fact that God put it there because he loves you so much. He wants you to have the rest and refreshment you need.
For your benefit.
So my challenge to you is this, especially as we enter the Easter season, when we focus most on the price Jesus paid for you and me, so that we can be with God eternally:
Seriously think and pray about how God would have you observe the Sabbath. Ask him to help you evaluate what you do and why you do it.
Is it honoring to God? Does it offer rest for you body and refreshment of your spirit?
Those are the important questions. And only you can answer them before God.
And I hope you will.
Let’s pray.
