Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION:

At Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital there is an elevator that is considered a sabbath Elevator.

From Friday night to Saturday night the elevator stops on every floor and the door opens so that the occupant does not have to do work and push the button.

In Modern orthodox Jewish teaching there are 39 Categories of Sabbath work Prohibited by the Law.

And with in each of these categories are numerous prohibitions..

Examples:

#2 Burning -

This involves making a fire or causing anything to burn.

Even throwing a toothpick into a fire is considered a violation of the Sabbath under this category

any use of electricity violates the spirit of the Sabbath, since it involves extracting energy from nature.

According to many authorities, electricity has the same status as fire with regard to the Sabbath.

In any case, the practice of all observant Jews is to avoid turning any electrical appliance on or off.

Since a telephone also works by electricity, it also should not be used.

#4 Finishing -

This includes completing any useful article, even where no other category of work is involved.

It includes all forms of repairs and adjustments.

This heading also forbids us to cut or tear paper in any way.

To take a very mundane example, one may not tear toilet paper on the Sabbath.

Religious Jews therefore only use pre-cut paper.

#26 Dyeing

This includes changing the color of any object or substance.

The spirit of this law also prohibits the use of lipstick and eyeshadow.

However, there are permanent cosmetics that can be put on before the Sabbath and last the entire day.

#34 Shearing

This includes removing hair, wool or feathers from any living creature.

Also included are such things as haircutting, shaving and cutting one’s fingernails.

Eyebrow plucking is also forbidden.

The spirit of the law also forbids the combing of hair on the Sabbath, since this normally also pulls out hairs.

Using a soft brush, however, is permitted.

So when you go to church next week everyone should be disheveled, no makeup, drinking cold old coffee, and we will note close our bathrooms, but the toilet paper will be off limits because it is not pre cut.

Should Sunday be considered the Christian Sabbath?

YES or NO

I want ask 4 questions to see what the Bible says.

What is the Sabbath?

Genesis 2:1-3 “1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”

The seventh day signified that God’s work of creation was finished.

You will notice in verse 3 the word holy,

and this is the first time holy is used in the Bible.

The root means to separate, or perhaps better, to turn that into a vertical concept, to elevate;

it is a separation that elevates or exalts.

So here, for the first time, we come across the idea of something being separated by being elevated; that is,

God designates this seventh day as an exalted day,

a day lifted above all other days.

Apart from that, Secondly is the verb rested.

When it says in verse 2 that “by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested,” and then in verse 3 again, “He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

This is a unique day, because, the creation being completed,

the whole work of creation was finished.

creation ceased on the sixth day.

It didn’t go on for thousands of years, didn’t go on for millions or billions of years;

after six days it was finished, it was completed.

it was perfect.

The 7th day was significant because it signals that God’s entire creation is finished.

The wording here Moses is painting a picture of a king who is building his palace.

,

God is the king of all the world

he is building his cosmic palace

and what the kings did non the near east was when they complete their palace take up rest in His dwelling place.

God rested so that he could take up dwelling in His palace with His people.

The Sabbath is always about a place and people.

Did God need rest?

God stops and rests.

It does not imply weariness:

Isaiah 40:28 “28 Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”

Psalm 121:4 “4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

He rested only in the sense that He ceased from work, not that He had to replenish His energy.

But what it tells us when He rested is really that He was satisfied,

It was a perfect work, and it was the rest of utter satisfaction.

And by the way, there would be no more creation, and for a little while, there was no more work for God to do.

God didn’t go to work again until the third chapter of Genesis -  not very long - when Adam and Eve fell, and God had to go to work.

And what was the first thing that God did?

Gen 3:21 “21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”

and then he drove them out of the Garden.

with the fall of man, God’s work began again.

God had to preserve - as Hebrews 1:1-3 “1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

He had to uphold by His power His creation, because it was now subject to decay.

And so, He went to work to preserve the universe that He has made,

the creation that He has made,

and He also went to work to fulfill all aspects necessary in the redemption of that creation.

Now, you do not hear in those three verses anything about people resting;

there’s nothing here about man resting, nothing here about Adam resting.

Because he was without sin and a perfect man in every sense, there was no depletion of his energies when he was doing whatever the simple tending of the garden called for.

There’s no need to have a day of rest for man;

what would he rest from?

He’s living in a paradise,

with no labor,

and no sweat,

and no expended and lost energy.

There’s no Sabbath law given here for Adam, none at all.

Nothing is said about this day being a day of worship.

It doesn’t say anything about that.

It doesn’t prescribe anything for anyone.

It is isolated completely to God.

He completed His creation; satisfied with it,

The next time you even run into the word is in Exodus 16.

Hundreds of years have passed,2400 years, the patriarchs have come and gone - none of them worshiped, far as we know, on the Sabbath.