Remember the Sabbath Day, to Keep it Holy (4th Commandment) Part 2

Introduction

English Standard Version Chapter 2

2 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.

English Standard Version Chapter 20

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And 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.”

Today, we’re going to look again at the 4th commandment, to “remember the Sabbath day, [and] to keep it holy.” This will be our final look at the first table of the law, those commandments that summarize our duty to God, which is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. To worship Him alone, to worship him rightly, to worship him reverently, and to worship him regularly.

Now, in our last time, we considered the relevance of 4th commandment under the new covenant, we considered whether or not the Sabbath command is still binding upon Christians today, within the context of the new covenant. And while many Christians have come to believe that the 4th commandment is no longer relevant under the new covenant, for one reason or another, I argued that the 4th commandment is still relevant and binding upon us today, even under the new covenant.

Is the Sabbath relevant?

So, if you weren’t here for part one of our look at the Sabbath, I encourage you to head over to our website to hear a fuller presentation of the biblical evidence, but just to summarize the case for you here, I made several points that I think establish a biblical case for the relevance of the Sabbath under the new covenant. The first, and probably the most important point, is that the Sabbath is a creation ordinance, that the Sabbath is not tied to any particular covenant in the Bible, that the Sabbath was instituted at creation and that it predates any covenant made with mankind, even prior to the fall.

And while the Sabbath took on greater significance and meaning under the old covenant, the Sabbath was not merely a temporary ceremonial law given only to Israel or tied exclusively to the old covenant, with the intention of being abrogated later under the new covenant. That the Sabbath command was given long before the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai.

Furthermore, the Sabbath command was not like the other laws given to Israel, written down by Moses on parchment, but was delivered audibly from Mt. Sinai directly to the people, and then written on tablets of stone by the very finger of God, signifying its permanence, and were to be kept inside the Ark of the Covenant.

Then, at the coming of Christ, the Sabbath continued to play a major role in the ministry of Jesus. Just like the other commandments, written on tablets of stone, Jesus frequently labored to teach his disciples proper Sabbath observance in the face of man-made traditions added by the Pharisees, even calling himself the Lord of the Sabbath. The Pharisees had distorted the law of God, and misused the law of God, so a major component of Jesus’ ministry was to teach his disciples how to understand the law and to wield it properly, which included Sabbath observance.

And finally, we find that Sabbath observance, as a result of the resurrection and the new covenant, shifted from the last day of the week to the first day of the week. And while the NT doesn’t provide us with a particular text to explain this transition, it’s abundantly clear in Scripture that the church began worshiping on Sundays instead of Saturdays as a result of the resurrection. That the apostles and the early church began referring to Sunday as the Lord’s Day, and gathering together weekly to devote themselves to the apostle’s teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer (Acts 2:42). And that it became immediately clear that those who worshiped on Saturdays in the synagogues were those who denied the resurrection, while those who worshiped on Sundays were those who embraced the resurrection, that those who worshiped on the Lord’s Day were those who identified themselves with Christ and his resurrection.

Therefore, it’s fitting that the Sabbath has shifted from Saturday to Sunday as a result of the resurrection and the new covenant. And like Isreal under the old covenant the Sabbath has taken on even greater significance and meaning under the new covenant, signifying our redemption, just as it had formerly signified Israel’s redemption from their slavery in Egypt. So, while the day of Sabbath observance has changed under the new covenant, it remains more relevant than ever before, reminding us of the rest we now have in Christ, but also of the future rest we still look forward to when he comes again.

How to keep the Sabbath?

Therefore, if the 4th commandment is still relevant for us today under the new covenant, and is still binding upon us, then the question that immediately follows, is, how to do we keep it? Or how do we obey the 4th commandment in light of the new covenant? What does it look like to remember the Sabbath day, and to keep it holy? So, my goal here today is to help answer that question by providing you with a couple biblical principles, or guidelines, that you should consider when answering that question.

Now, at the outset it’s important for us to understand that the answer to this question is not merely compiling a list of approved and forbidden activities on the Lord’s Day. We must avoid compiling a strict list of do’s and don’ts, because in most cases the Bible doesn’t provide us with such a list, and to do so would be to fall into the trap of the Pharisees who had added upwards of 39 categories of Sabbath prohibitions to the law of God, despite the Bible’s silence. And it was these unbiblical regulations, among other things, that sparked controversy between the Pharisees and Jesus. You see, when you realize that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, you quickly see why he wasn’t impressed with their man-made Sabbath regulations, when Jesus had given no such regulations to his people in Scripture.

While most of the Pharisees undoubtedly thought that these Sabbath regulations promoted biblical piety, and reflected a deep sense of religious devotion, in reality, their additional regulations had turned the Sabbath into a burden rather than a blessing. Their added regulations had undermined the spirit of the Sabbath. Their Sabbath traditions had forbidden what God had not, and robbed men of their freedom, turning the Sabbath into a list of do’s and don’t’s rather than a day of rest from their labors, and a day dedicated to the Lord. Therefore, it’s paramount that we guard against doing the very same thing.

So, at the outset, I want you to understand that our goal here today is, first, to identify the spirit behind the Sabbath, and, second, to identify the biblical principles given to us in Scripture that provide us with guidance for keeping the Sabbath as it was intended from the very beginning. While our natural inclination might be to look for a list of do’s and don’t’s, the Bible very rarely provides us with these kinds of lists.

The Bible typically employs moral principles to guide our steps rather than a comprehensive list of do’s and don’t’s for every theoretical situation. For if that were the case, the Bible would be longer than we could read in a lifetime. Instead, we’re given broad moral precepts and a few books of wisdom to navigate our path, which is how we’re intended to approach the Sabbath. We identify the spirit of the Sabbath, or what it’s purpose is, and then identify the Sabbath principles provided for us in Scripture that are designed to achieve that purpose, and act as guardrails in our effort to keep the Sabbath.

So, let’s consider these Sabbath principles one at a time, and, as we do, these principles should increasingly reveal to us the spirit of the Sabbath, or its purpose, that it’s not intended to be a burden to us, but rather a blessing. So, keep that in mind as we go along, the Sabbath was created for man, and not man for the Sabbath, in other words the Sabbath was instituted for our benefit. This is very important to remember as we walk through these principles.

The Lord’s Day, not ours

That being said, the first principle, and likely the most important guiding principle, is found in the name, the Lord’s Day. Because this day is referred to as the Lord’s Day should teach us something very fundamental about Sabbath observance. On one hand, we refer to the Sabbath under the new covenant as the Lord’s Day simply as a commemoration of our Lord’s resurrection on Sunday, but on the other hand it also teaches us that this day is not our own, to do with it whatever we see fit. This is the Lord’s Day, not ours. We read in Exodus 20:8-10,

Exodus 20:8–10 (ESV)

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.”

So, we must understand that the Lord’s Day is set apart not for our own pleasures, but for the Lord. All of our activities should be governed by this principle, and I think many of our questions concerning Sabbath observance would be easily answered if we were always careful to take this principle into consideration, that Sunday is the Lord’s day, and not ours. We’re never to make plans on the Lord’s Day without taking this principle into consideration, our activities on the Lord’s Day must be governed by this principle.

Worship, the chief focus

Therefore, the chief focus of the Lord’s Day is worship, which, of course, is why we gather for corporate worship on the Lord’s Day each week. While we may have Bible studies throughout the week, on various days of our own choosing, Scripture commands us to set aside the Lord’s Day each week for corporate worship. While we can choose when or if to participate in other church activities throughout the week, we don’t get to choose whether we’re going to set aside Sunday for the Lord or not, because he’s already decided that for us.

In fact, if it weren’t for the 4th commandment there wouldn’t be anything holding us accountable to weekly corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. If the 4th commandment were not binding under the new covenant, elders would have no way of requiring church members to attend weekly gatherings on the Lord’s Day, they would have no way to hold members accountable to weekly corporate worship. So, the 4th commandment determines the frequency of our worship, and on which day we gather together. This is the requirement that the Book of Hebrews refers to in Hebrews 10:24-25, when the writer says,

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

It’s on the basis of the 4th commandment that we’re warned against “neglecting to meeting together, as is the habit of some”.

Now, as we’ll see later, there are many kinds of activities permitted on the Sabbath besides corporate worship, but my point here is that those activities should never undermine or come into conflict with our priority to meet together for corporate worship. For example, I might take my family out fishing to spend time together and relax, but I’ll be sure to work this around the priority of corporate worship. Sometimes there are events or activities that, at times, conflict with corporate worship on Sundays, therefore we simply abstain from those activities on the Lord’s Day, or arrive late, after worship.

But it has always amazed me how cavalier Christians can be about corporate worship and the Lord’s Day. Sometimes all it takes is a sunny day to keep us from gathering together, or a child’s sporting event. This is dangerous not only because it’s a violation of the 4th commandment, but it reflects how casual we treat our obligation to worship. And if you’re a parent, your children will quickly learn from you that sports or other similar activities are more important than worship. So, if you’re a parent, listen to me when I say that there is no sport or extracurricular activity more important than worshiping the maker of heaven and earth, and the way you teach your children this is for you to prioritize worship on the Lord’s Day.

Meditating on the works of God

Now, this principle of the Lord’s Day, as a day set aside for the Lord and for corporate worship, should also encourage us to give special attention to spiritual matters. As John Calvin once put it, “that we should desist from our works which are able to impede us from meditating on the works of God.” Many Christians often complain that they don’t have enough time to read books on theology, or study their Bibles, but the Lord’s Day has been set aside for precisely these pursuits! The Lord has carved out one day each week for you and I to meditate on his works. In other words, the overall focus of the Lord’s Day should be (you guessed it), the Lord. And this can play out in all sorts of ways each week, whether it’s reading your Bible, reading a book on theology, listening to a Christian podcast or teaching, engaging in deliberate Christian fellowship, and so on.

Day of remembering

The Lord’s Day is also a day of weekly remembering. As I’ve pointed out already, the Sabbath is a creation ordinance, because it was instituted at the beginning of creation. Therefore, the Sabbath serves to remind us each week that God is our creator, that in six days he created the heavens and the earth. The Sabbath serves as a signpost and a testimony to this truth, both to us and the unbelieving world each week as we gather for corporate worship.

The Sabbath is also intended to remind us of our redemption under the new covenant, just as it was intended to remind the Jews of their redemption from slavery in Egypt under the old covenant. This was made especially clear as the Sabbath shifted from Saturday to Sunday, when the church began worshipping on the Lord’s Day, the day of Christ’s resurrection, the day of our redemption.

Therefore, each week, on the Lord’s day, we’re intended to be reminded of our redemption from slavery to sin and death, that Jesus, who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might be become the righteousness of God. That we were delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14) And each week, each Lord’s Day, that redemption is offered repeatedly to anyone who will turn from their sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and to them he will give eternal life without price.

And it’s crucial at this point that we realize just how important remembering is to our spiritual wellbeing. One of the perennial issues that the Jews faced in the OT was forgetting, forgetting what God had done for them, forgetting his law, and as a result forsaking him over and over again. And, as Christians, we too are in danger of forgetting, forgetting what God has done for us, forgetting his law, and forgetting the cost of our redemption. Therefore, the Lord’s Day, the weekly gathering of the saints, is intended to serve as a constant reminder of our redemption and of our dependence upon God, a constant reminder of his law and of our dependence upon his mercy, lest we forget and perish. The weekly rhythm of the Lord’s Day is intended to be a means by which God keeps us, and causes us to persevere. Therefore, those who forsake the Lord’s Day do so at their own peril.

Any professing Christian who neglects to gather together weekly with the local church, will not last long. They will inevitably drift further and further away. One cannot neglect the local church without neglecting Christ. Many professing Christians have concluded that belonging to a local church and gathering weekly for corporate worship is optional. However, in doing so, they’ve not only violated the 4th commandment, but they’ve charted their own path that will inevitably shipwreck their faith.

So, again, the first principle to keep in mind when seeking to keep the Sabbath is that it’s the Lord’s Day, not ours. Which entails that corporate worship ought to be our priority and chief concern, and that this day out to be a time of meditating and remember God’s works.

Day of rest

The second guiding principle for keeping Sabbath is that it’s intended to be a day of rest. While we’re intended to rest from our labors, to have a day, each week, set aside for the Lord, we’re also intended to rest from our labors in order to be refreshed. While God has no need of rest, we do, therefore he established a pattern of rest for us at creation. God could have created the heavens and the earth in an instant, but instead he did so over the course of six days, and rested on the seventh. This is one of the reasons the Sabbath was created for man, to provide us regular rest from our labors.

Our bodies are fundamentally limited and require regular rest. While we’re certainly intended to work, we’re not intended to work unceasingly, we’re not designed to work seven twelves. When we work without rest there are tangible consequences both biologically and spiritually. That our bodies require sleep each day is testimony to our creaturely limitations.

We all know that when we don’t have adequate sleep on a regular basis that the quality of our work suffers, that our health suffers, and that our relationships suffer. We’re likely to be more irritable, more prone to impatience and anger, experience diminished self-control, we overheat or adopt unhealthy diets, and the list goes on. Our relationship with our spouse suffers, our relationship with our children or our parents suffers, our relationships with our friends and our coworkers suffer. One of the reasons I'm adamant that my children get to bed at a decent hour is because I know that if they don’t get enough sleep that they won’t function well the next day.

Furthermore, without enough rest we will find it impossible to establish good spiritual habits, prayer is almost always the first thing to go, then we neglect to read our Bibles, we become too tired to attend Bible studies or corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. Our entire life suffers when we don’t get adequate rest.

Without enough rest we become increasingly prone to burn-out, we lose our motivation to carry out basic responsibilities and even lose our motivation for recreation. I’ve noticed in recent years, as I’ve gotten older, that what seemed like a limitless supply of energy and motivation as a younger person has become increasingly limited. At first, I had as much energy as there were hours in the day, and sometimes more. And in turn, filling my days to the brim with responsibilities and activities. However, as time went on I eventually realized that I was slowly losing the energy and motivation to keep the same pace. I realized that I was suffering from what many call burn-out. And I eventually realized that my energy was limited.

And my point is simply this, that we’re finite creatures that require rest, and not just regular sleep, but weekly rest. One of the fundamental purposes of the Sabbath is to rest from our labors, to accommodate our creaturely limitations. Therefore, the second guiding principle for keeping the Sabbath on the Lord’s Day is rest.

The Sabbath not only accommodates our limitations, but it meets our needs. The Sabbath is intended to be a day of refreshment. Some of us are prone to think that to take a day off is simply equivalent to getting less work done, however, the Sabbath is designed to accomplish just the opposite. Rest is designed to result in refreshment, that in turn results in greater productivity. A well rested person is a far happier and productive person. Rest and refreshment is necessary for the highest levels or productivity. Don’t forget, God commanded us to have dominion over the earth, to work it and to keep it, and to fill it by multiplication, and that the Sabbath established at creation was meant to serve that end, not to undermine it. We rest that we might work.

So, if one of the primary purposes of the Sabbath is to rest then how we keep the Sabbath must promote that end. For some, this might mean an afternoon nap, for others this might mean going for a walk, or engaging in extracurricular activities that promote rest and refreshment.

Rest and reliance

Furthermore, and more importantly, the Bible teaches us that resting from our labors is also designed to demonstrate our reliance upon God. That resting from our labors on the Lord’s Day is intended to remind us that we rely upon Him for our provision, and not merely our own hands. While our labors are the primary means designed by God for our provision, this does not mean that we don’t rely upon God for everything. We must remember that even the strength given to us to work is from God. We’re all prone to think that the money and possessions we have are purely the result of our own efforts, rather than the provision and blessing graciously given to us by God. We’re prone to forget that it is God who “gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:25) We’re told in Deuteronomy 8:18,

Deuteronomy 8:18 (ESV)

You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth...

This is why a breach of the Sabbath under the old covenant was taken so seriously, and could result in capital punishment, because it was fundamentally a breach of faith toward God. We read in Exodus 31:14-15,

Exodus 31:14–15 ESV

You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.

And while we no longer live under Israel’s civil laws, the seriousness of profaning the Sabbath still remains, because the Lord’s Day is intended to be a weekly reminder that we rely upon God, and not upon our own efforts. And that should be cause for our rejoicing! That we don’t fundamentally rely upon our own strength, but upon God’s. That we don’t have to be anxious about providing for ourselves, but that the Lord is our provider, that the buck stops with him, and not you.

Acts of mercy

Now, before we close, I want to spend the remainder of our time briefly considering Jesus’ teaching on the Sabbath. As I mentioned before, I think it’s quite telling that some of the best commentary we have on the Sabbath came from Jesus. And what he says about the Sabbath gives us even greater insight into it’s purpose and how we’re intended to keep it. There are several passages we could look at, but for the sake of time we’ll look at just a few, first, turn with me to Matthew 12:9-14,

Matthew 12:9–14 ESV

He went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

In the Pharisee’s zeal to keep the Sabbath, their regulatory efforts had come to forbid doing good on the Sabbath. They had regulated the Sabbath into oblivion, so much that Jesus couldn’t even heal a man without violating their Sabbath regulations. So Jesus countered their question by illustrating that their Sabbath regulations had gone so far as to forbid doing good to one another on the Sabbath, and that this was never the intention of the Sabbath. And so Jesus immediately turns to the man with a withered hand and he heals him.

What are we are to make of this encounter? That it is not a violation of the Sabbath to do good on the Sabbath! That abstaining from our labors on the Sabbath is not a prohibition against doing good on the Sabbath. If you see your brother in need you’re not forbidden from helping him. To abstain from our labors does not forbid us from showing mercy to one another. If your brother is in distress or in need then, you are encouraged to come to his aid. The church has historically referred to these as acts of mercy.

Works of necessity

Lastly, turn with me to Luke 13:10-17,

Luke 13:10–17 ESV

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Notice what Jesus says there in verse 15, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?” In other words, the Sabbath is also not intended forbid what the church has historically referred to as works of necessity. The Sabbath was not intended to forbid changing diapers, preaching sermons, feeding the dog, or driving to church. And more than that, if you’re an emergency responder, an emergency room doctor, military personnel on duty or engaged in war, these works of necessity were never meant to be forbidden.

Closing

Now, as we close, I want to remind us that we’re meant to look forward to the Lord’s Day, to view it as a blessing and not as a cruse or a day of restrictions, but as a time of worship and refreshment, a day set a part for the Lord, not as a burden, but as a day or rest from our labors, a day that we rest in God’s provision, a day that remembers our Lord’s resurrection and our redemption, and a day that looks forward to our final rest when Christ comes again. So, as you contemplate our Lord’s command to keep the Sabbath, remember these purposes for the Sabbath and the principles set forth in Scripture that are intended to promote those ends.

Prayer