Tradition or Truth
Tradition or Truth • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsLooking at our traditions through the lense of truth.
Notes
Transcript
Tradition or Truth
Tradition or Truth
Good morning everyone. It is good to see you all and that you survived the beginning of school.
We are starting a new series today to finish up our Summer.
There are a lot of traditions out there both in the church and the world.
In Span for instance, La Tomatina is a festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, on the last Wednesday of August each year, in which participants throw tomatoes. This giant tomato fight is purely for entertainment purposes.
Then there is, Serpent Handling: Practiced by a small number of isolated rural Holiness churches in Appalachia, handling venomous snakes is done as a literal demonstration of faith in biblical marks of protection.
Please understand I am not saying traditions are wrong, except throwing snakes, but when the tradition becomes more powerful than the truth we have an issue.
So over the next couple of weeks, thanks to your help, we are going over a few things that you may have wondered why we do it in the church.
So, please turn in your Bibles or apps to Romans 14.
Today we are looking at
Sunday or Sabbath
Sunday or Sabbath
The fourth commandment says :
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 the heavens and the 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.
Sunday or Sabbath
Sunday or Sabbath
So the questions is if the Sabbath is Saturday why do we meet on Sunday?
Or, Is Sunday the new Sabbath? Do we need to observe a Sabbath.
What really is the Sabbath?
That’s a lot, and I hope to answer it all this morning.
Please stand with me as we read the most important words you will hear todah.
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Let’s pray.
Sunday or Sabbath
Sunday or Sabbath
Before we get into how we interact with the Sabbath, we first have to define it Biblically.
What is the Sabbath?
First we see it in he Creation narrative:
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.
What is the Sabbath?
This is not God needing a rest.
It is God, finished with His creative work, putting His seal on all creation.
God is also modeling a rhythm for humanity.
We next see it as God is forming a nation out of Israel.
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 the heavens and the 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.
What is the Sabbath?
This is part of the covenant God made with Israel as He gave them His standards.
It is a sign of Israels covenant identity.
It put into practice what God modeled.
Post exile - is when things started to be added. The distance you could walk, how much you could carry. It became more about self denial and implicit obedience. No matter the cost. It was so ingrained, during the Maccabean revolt, the Jews allowed themselves to be slaughtered instead of defending themselves.
Then Jesus comes on the scene
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.”
What is the Sabbath?
It was always intended to be about rest, but rest from worry and fear, because the Creator is the one who supplies everything. To keep it points to the promise of eternal rest and Jesus is the fulfillment of that.
9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Is Sunday the new Sabbath?
7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
Is Sunday the new Sabbath?
Sunday was very significant to the early church.
The first day of the week was when Christ rose.
1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Jesus appeared to the Disciples.
19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
Is Sunday the new Sabbath?
The Holy Spirit descended on a Sunday - 50 days after Easter
Sunday, the Lord’s day, stands out in the NT. Not as an obligation like the Sabbath, but a privilege.
A day to remember Christ’s work is finished. Redemption and restoration is available to all. Every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
Is Sunday the new Sabbath?
Some have argued that Sunday is now the Sabbath, but the early Church saw it as a day of gathering and worship.
Most gentiles still had to go to work after the gathering.
It was not thought of as Sabbath until around 250 years after Christ’s resurrection.
Do we need to observe the Sabbath?
No where in the NT are Christians told to observe the Sabbath.
The Jerusalem council when giving direction Gentiles due to others saying they must follow Jewish law said
19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.
Pauls said:
16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Do we need to observe the Sabbath?
The simple answer is it is up to you.
We are to gather.
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 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.
We are called to worship together
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Do we need to observe the Sabbath?
We have been given freedom. Is it wrong to have a Sabbath, no.
Is it smart to have a day to rest and focus on the things of God, yes.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
So what does this all mean?
That rest is available every day.
Every day we worship.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
So what does this all mean?
On Sundays we gather together, but everyday we should be offering ourselves to God for His glory.
Tradition or Truth
Tradition or Truth
I don’t believe Sunday is the new Sabbath and I do believe we all need a focused time of resting in God and acknowledging His as Ruler and Creator.
Billy Graham once said:
“Nothing can calm our souls more or better prepare us for life’s challenges than time spent alone with God.”
Tradition or Truth
Tradition or Truth
I would add to that and time spent together worshipping our God.
The bottom line is God wants us to know He made us, Christ came to redeem and restore us, and that His rest is available now.
All we have to do is come.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
What are you waiting for?
Let’s pray.
