Planting 2.0: Why Worship On Sunday?

Introduction:

Grandpa and grandma

Structure of the Sermon

Basketball:

Drive down the court

Turnover

Heading back down the court...

Why Worship on the Sabbath?

Reason #1: Remembering Eden

Reason #1: Remembering Eden

Six days got created, the seventh day is a Sabbath day and made it holy.

God worked and God rested. 6-1 pattern. Russia tried to change their worked week to 8 days.

Rest is embedded in creation.

Workoholism

Keeping a day when the phone is off...

Second Reason #2: Remembering Egypt

Victory Day!

Mark Buchanan. In his book, The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath,

Mark writes: “Exodus remembers Eden, Deuteronomy remembers Egypt… Exodus looks up, Deuteronomy looks back. Exodus gives theological rationale for rest, and Deuteronomy historical justification for it. One evokes God’s character, the other His redemption. One calls us to holy mimicry- be like God; the other to holy defiance- never be slaves again…

Mark writes: “Exodus remembers Eden, Deuteronomy remembers Egypt… Exodus looks up, Deuteronomy looks back. Exodus gives theological rationale for rest, and Deuteronomy historical justification for it. One evokes God’s character, the other His redemption. One calls us to holy mimicry- be like God; the other to holy defiance- never be slaves again…

Live as free!

Don’t go back to shackles

Pivot Point

We break this command every week! Can’t break the command- do not murder.

In the NT, this is not reaffirmed. It is the only one that is not reaffirmed because it has a specific application to Israel.

Douma: “In the third place, the Sabbath is not explicitly maintained in the NT. We read nowhere that the Sabbath must be observed by the Christian church according to the fourth commandment” (111).

“We need not esteem one day above another, Paul says” ( and ).

Constantine proclaimed Sunday as a day of rest in AD 321.

New Testament Examples of Jesus breaking the Sabbath Rules:

English Standard Version Chapter 2

24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25

English Standard Version Chapter 12

8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

English Standard Version Chapter 3

“Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But

English Standard Version Chapter 13

14 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.” 15 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? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

English Standard Version Chapter 14

“Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”

English Standard Version Chapter 5

8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”

Why Worship on Sunday

Reason #1: Remembering Pentecost

The first day was the day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church ().

Rest from sin. Rest from evil.

1. Liturgy to copy and paste in everyday life.

2. The first day was the day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church ().

Heidelberg Catechism:

that every day of my life

I rest from my evil ways,

let the Lord work in me through his Spirit,

and so begin already in this life

the eternal Sabbath.

Reason #2: Remembering the Cross

Weekly Victory Lap to Cut and Paste in Daily Rythms.

The first day of the week was the day on which our Lord rose from the dead (; cf. ).

A. First,

that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained,^1

and that, especially on the festive day of rest,

I regularly attend the assembly of God's people^2

to learn what God's Word teaches,^3

to participate in the sacraments,^4

to pray to God publicly,^5

and to bring Christian offerings for the poor.^6

Congregational Singing

Baptism

Victory Day rest: breaking of Sabbath= death penalty.

Second,

that every day of my life

I rest from my evil ways,

let the Lord work in me through his Spirit,

and so begin already in this life

the eternal Sabbath.^7