The Subversive Sabbath (Part 1)
The Rest of the Year • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 24 viewsIf we are truly going to experience sabbath, then there are some enemies that will have to be defeated.
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Transcript
I, like most people, love a good resistance narrative.
I, like most people, love a good resistance narrative.
The history we like to remember.
The movies we like to watch
The stories we like to read.
The idea of an oppressed people pushing back against their oppressors is a powerful idea to the human psyche.
The idea of an oppressed people pushing back against their oppressors is a powerful idea to the human psyche.
It’s one of the things I have come to love most about sabbath.
It’s one of the things I have come to love most about sabbath.
We can get the wrong ideas about Sabbath.
We can begin to think of sabbath as something soft, squishy, passive.
But, if we view sabbath this way, we have misunderstood sabbath.
When God created sabbath on the 7th day, He did not just create a pretty picnic, He created a revolutionary power.
When God created sabbath on the 7th day, He did not just create a pretty picnic, He created a revolutionary power.
God was telling the story of redemption from the beginning.
God knew that He would one day deliver His people from Egypt.
God knew that one day He would deliver His people from bondage to sin.
And the sabbath was created to safeguard and secure the blessing of that liberty for the people of God.
In creating sabbath, God created something that seems soft and squishy, but it is actually quite rugged, resilient and revolutionary.
In creating sabbath, God created something that seems soft and squishy, but it is actually quite rugged, resilient and revolutionary.
I want to preach a sermon called The Subversive Sabbath: The Revolutionary Power Of Rest
I want to preach a sermon called The Subversive Sabbath: The Revolutionary Power Of Rest
In this message we will see that Sabbath is
Power to Defy The Culture
Power to Denounce False Gods
Power to Deny The Flesh
This is more content than we can cover in the few minutes we have today. So, this will be part 1.
The sermon will be anchored in the sabbath commandment (within the 10 commandments, which is found in Ex 20:8–11
Exodus 20:8–11 (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. 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.
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.
PRAYER
Sabbath Is Power To Defy The Culture
Sabbath Is Power To Defy The Culture
If we want to understand sabbath in this context, we first have to understand what we are looking at when we study the so-called “10 Commandments”
If we want to understand sabbath in this context, we first have to understand what we are looking at when we study the so-called “10 Commandments”
This term “Ten Commandments” is an unfortunate translation error
This term “Ten Commandments” is an unfortunate translation error
In Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13, and Deuteronomy 10:4, the term “aseret ha-d’varim” is used to describe what God gave Moses on the tablets.
The term is better translated “the ten words” or “the ten sayings”, rather than "ten commandments."
The Decalogue is not to be read as a set of rigid rules or prohibitions ("Thou shalt not") designed to control behavior.
The Decalogue is not to be read as a set of rigid rules or prohibitions ("Thou shalt not") designed to control behavior.
While they include commands, they are broader in scope, framing the identity and character of God’s people.
This is not a legalistic moral code, These sayings give definition to the kind of people Israel ought to be.
Each one is a statement of a principal and together, they articulate a vision for Israel as a society.
Here’s a better reading of the Decalogue (slightly abbreviated for time)
Here’s a better reading of the Decalogue (slightly abbreviated for time)
‘You have no other Gods before Me.
4 ‘You do not make to any graven image, or any likeness which is in the heavens above, or which is in the earth beneath, or which is in the waters under the earth.
7 ‘You do not take up the name of Jehovah your God for a vain thing,
8 ‘Remember the Sabbath-day to sanctify it; 9 for six days you labour, and do all your work, 10and the seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah you God; you not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, you man-servant, or you handmaid, or your cattle, or your sojourner who is within your gates,— 11for six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah has blessed the Sabbath-day, and made it holy.
12 ‘Honour your father and your mother,
13 ‘You do not murder.
14 ‘You do not commit adultery.
15 ‘You do not steal.
16 ‘You do not speak a false testimony against your neighbour.
17 ‘You do not desire the house of thy neighbour, You do not desire the wife of thy neighbour, or his man-servant, or his handmaid, or his ox, or his ass, or anything which is belongs to your neighbor.’
This correct understanding of the Decalogue helps us see what is happening with the Sabbath.
You see beloved, the bondage that Israel experienced in Egypt was not a unique experience in Ancient Near Eastern culture.
You see beloved, the bondage that Israel experienced in Egypt was not a unique experience in Ancient Near Eastern culture.
And while miraculous nature of the deliverance was unique, the idea of a new leader coming and overthrowing an the guy in power was not.
And while miraculous nature of the deliverance was unique, the idea of a new leader coming and overthrowing an the guy in power was not.
In a real sense, the first three sayings (all of which speak to the exclusive authority and dominion of Jehovah) must have sounded all too familiar.
I rescued you from Pharoah (who was your master and the God in Egypt).
I’m you God now. I’m your master now.
But, the last 6 are revolutionary from a cultural perspective
But, the last 6 are revolutionary from a cultural perspective
Rulers would regularly kill their mother or father to take the throne of power.
Adultery was commonplace…Kings and aristocrats in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Canaan took multiple wives and concubines and often exploited women as a symbol of their power and authority.
To steal or to lie was nothing if it meant an opportunity to get ahead.
But, here Yahweh is saying that in Israel, we don’t even desire to have what our neighbor has.
And what is the bridge that God gives His people to get them from what seems to be a familiar power structure in the first three sayings to the revolutionary community described by the final 6?
And what is the bridge that God gives His people to get them from what seems to be a familiar power structure in the first three sayings to the revolutionary community described by the final 6?
The 4th saying.
The sabbath.
A weekly reminder of the perfect shalom established at the creation.
That perfect shalom was rooted in personhood.
That perfect shalom was rooted in personhood.
It was about who God was, not what God did.
It was about who humanity was; created in the image and likeness of God. It was not about what man did.
The way the tempter got humanity to sin was to shift their focus away from personhood…away from who God is…away from who Adam and Eve are in relation to God.
The way the tempter got humanity to sin was to shift their focus away from personhood…away from who God is…away from who Adam and Eve are in relation to God.
To shift from personhood to power
To shift from personhood to position
God is bigger and stronger than you, and He’s keeping you down.
Every society that focuses on power and possession rather than personhood will produce slaves
Every society that focuses on power and possession rather than personhood will produce slaves
Because its automatically a rat race
It’s automatically a race to the top…
And somebody has to be at the bottom.
So, men and women are reduced to means to an end.
So, men and women are reduced to means to an end.
Everyone is either a collaborator or a competitor
Everyone is either one my team or posing a threat.
And all vulnerable people:
Children
The sick
The disabled
Those who have gotten too old.
BECAUSE THEY CANNOT HELP ME EVEN THOUGH THEY DON’T WANT TO HINDER ME, I CAN ONLY EVER SEE THEM AS A BURDEN.
You see, beloved, God was not just delivering Israel from Egypt, God was delivering Israel from what sin does to society.
You see, beloved, God was not just delivering Israel from Egypt, God was delivering Israel from what sin does to society.
And make no mistake about it, sin has done it to our world today…in the society we are living in right now.
And make no mistake about it, sin has done it to our world today…in the society we are living in right now.
But, Sabbath is a way of fighting back. Sabbath is a way of saying, “No!, I will not be conformed to ways and thinking of a sin sick culture”.
But, Sabbath is a way of fighting back. Sabbath is a way of saying, “No!, I will not be conformed to ways and thinking of a sin sick culture”.
I am not defined by what I have and where I rank. I am defined by who I am as an image bearer of God.
And you are not not defined by what I have and where I rank. I am defined by who I am as an image bearer of God.
Sabbath reminds us that value is not in what we do or what we have, our value is in who we are…
We are human beings (not human doings)
Made in the image and likeness of God
Sabbath reminds us with the 127th Psalm:
Sabbath reminds us with the 127th Psalm:
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Sabbath is power to defy this anxious culture and rest.
Sabbath Is Power To Denounce False Gods
Sabbath Is Power To Denounce False Gods
At the center of every anxious society is an anxious god.
At the center of every anxious society is an anxious god.
At the center of every anxious society is a God who cannot rest
A god who cannot afford to rest.
A god who depends on the rat race to maintain the requisite relations and environment to be a god.
Pharoah was God in Egypt.
Pharoah was God in Egypt.
Anxious about keeping the crops coming.
Anxious about building storehouses for the grain.
Anxious about military threats.
Pharoah could not afford to take his eye off the ball for even a millisecond.
AND BECAUSE PHARAOH COULD NOT REST, THE WHOLE SOCIETY GRINDINGLY BUSY, ALWAYS ON THE EDGE OF VIOLENCE, AND HOPELESSLY ANXIOUS.
Much of our world today is organized around the cult of the almighty dollar.
Much of our world today is organized around the cult of the almighty dollar.
Money cannot rest.
If it doesn’t keep moving, performing, manifesting, manipulating, then people will forget about it and it will lose its power.
Because money can’t rest, nothing and no one in the society can rest.
Sabbath is a reminder that our lives are not organized around an anxious God, our lives are organized around the God who rests.
Sabbath is a reminder that our lives are not organized around an anxious God, our lives are organized around the God who rests.
Not because our God is tired.
But because Yahweh’s position as God does not flow out of what He does
Yahweh’s position as God does not flow out of what we do for Him.
Yahweh’s position as God flows out of who He is.
We call Him healer…but Jehovah Rapha is His name…Healing is who our God is
Provider…Jehovah Jireh…Provision
Keeper…Jehovah Shammah…Nearness
Protector…Jehovah Sabaoth…strength, power, and protection
Our God does not need us to be slaves in order for Him to be God. HE IS THE I AM THAT I AM. He is God all by Himself.
Our God does not need us to be slaves in order for Him to be God. HE IS THE I AM THAT I AM. He is God all by Himself.
(Remember reading for RHB): “If you are not resting, it is because you are a slave to something.”
(Remember reading for RHB): “If you are not resting, it is because you are a slave to something.”
An anxious culture.
A false God who needs you to be a slave in order for it to be God.
I stand to exhort you today, Beloved, as strongly as I can; don’t be a slave.
Join the Resistance. Join the Rest.
Join the Resistance. Join the Rest.
And while the practice of sabbath points the way to freedom, this is not something that we can do in our own strength.
And while the practice of sabbath points the way to freedom, this is not something that we can do in our own strength.
We’ll get into this more later in the series, sin will try to get into the practice of sabbath itself, and make it something burdensome and legalistic.
Sin will try to corrupt even the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and have us worship a false Jesus…an anxious Jesus who needs you to stop…doing stuff…before He can save you.
When the reality is that the salvation of Jesus offers is a free gift…it depends 100% on His power…and He saves to the uttermost.
This Jesus called Himself, “Lord of the Sabbath”.
This Jesus called Himself, “Lord of the Sabbath”.
And the Apostle Paul writes these words about the freedom we find in Him
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Will you join the resistance today?
Will you join the resistance today?
Receive Christ
Join the Resistance.
Push back from the unrelenting toil of society.
Reject every false God that needs you to be a slave.
This is a local cell group of the Resistance.
