Commandment 4: Resting in God

Big Idea

Tension: How were the Israelites to worship God and love their neighbors?

Resolution: By working for the first six days, and resting as a community in God on the seventh day.

Exegetical Idea: The Israelites were to worship God and love their neighbors by working for the first six days and resting as a community in God on the seventh day.

Theological Idea: Christians worship God and love each other by gathering together on the day of the New Creation.

Homiletical Idea: We worship God and love our neighbor by gathering on the Lord’s day.

Intro

Law as Acquaintance

“To explain.... (the American political unrest in 2016), many commentators pointed to the factories that were closing, but they should have pointed to the churches that were closing.” - Timothy Carney

Churches produce virtue: Timothy Carney would say that the kind of virtue that really benefits society, the kind of virtue that society needs to produce good citizens, good workers, good soldiers, good politicians, good fathers, good mothers, good children, the kind of virtue which our society cannot due without comes from churches.

Church is practicing the practice of Sabbath: Now, perhaps you say, well, what does a “church” have to do with a Sabbath? I understand the Calendar week is seven days, but can’t I just do Sabbath on my own? What is the relationship between a Sabbath and the Church? Can’t I just rest? Well, as I hope to show you this morning, this commandment teaches us that the best way to rest in God, is with his people. Let’s look at it in a little more detail.

The Commandment Itself

Remember the Sabbath by sanctifying it: This command starts positively. Now, look at this word “to” it is better described as “as.”

Work is good (vs. 9): God actually believes in work. it was his idea.

Sabbath is based on God’s order of creation (11): Look down to verse 11, we celebrate teh Sabbath because God celebrated the Sabbath.

We sanctify it because God sanctified it (12): We set it apart, because God set it apart. So when we do this, we are imitating this.

Sabbath is for the Lord (10): Now, look at this. Notice how Sabbath is for God. We totally misunderstand Sabbath, because we think it’s all about us. But it’s not “for us” in teh sense that it’s a time to indulge ourselves. It is a time to worship God.

Sabbath is done with the family and for the community: How do we do that? Well, we gather all the community to worship God. OUr children, our parents, our family, our servants, even our livestock. In other words, to worship God, you must be with God’s people.

Sabbath is based on God’s order of creation

How did the Israelites celebrate the Sabbath? So how did this look in ancient Israel? Well, in ancient Israel, every town or village was supposed to be a kind of gathering unto itself. Now, we know they didn’t keep this perfectly, that’s one of the reasons they go into exile. But we do know that God wanted them to do this, and that at times they did. So we don’t know too much about how this looked, but we do know some of the things that they were supposed to do. Sometimes the village elders or priests would do some kind of ceremony. They read the Bible. There was a time of preaching. There was singing. And there was praying. There is also some evidence in the Bible that they would actually celebrate with a big community feast. There is also some evidence that prophets had some kind of gatherings around them.

How did this look in the Exile? Well, after God’s people went into exile, they started doing many of those same things, but they would gather into what we today call synagogues. “Synagogue” comes from the Greek work συναγαγω, which just means “gather.” So, instead of all of the people in the town, they woudl get all the God-worshippers in a city or a village or a neighborhood together, as many other Jews as they could find, and they would gather together.

We sanctify it because God sanctified it

How did the early Christians celebrate the Sabbath? So when the Christians started worshipping the Sabbath, they basically picked up a lot of these same things. They would sing, they would pray, they would read God’s word, they would preach. They would take a meal together. They would take the Lord’s Supper together. They would take up offerings. But there was one big difference. When the Christians gathered together, they stopped worshipping on the seventh day of Creation. Because the seventh day of Creation looked backwards to what God had done in the past. But they started worshipping on the first day of the week. Why? Because God started a new creation in the resurrection. So we celebrate on the day of resurrection, because we are looking forward to the day when all things will be new.

Law as Enemy

: We break the Sabbath when we neglect it: So when we do not celebrate God’s gift of the Sabbath when we forget about it, we are telling God that he is not good. God is deadly serious about us enjoying the Sabbath. To neglect God’s gift of the Sabbath is tell him you can find better elsewhere. God is deadly serious about celebrating teh Sabbath. Because Israel would later reject God’s Sabbath, God sent them into exile ().

2 Chronicles 36:21 ESV

to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

We break the Sabbath when we use it to rest in ourselves: However, there is also the other error. Rather than license, we can commit legalism. Rather than using the Sabbath to rest in God’s salvation, we can use the Sabbath to rest in ourselves. () When we use the Sabbath to look down on others, we break the Sabbath.

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath (): Jesus says I am Lord of the Sabbath

Christ as Sabbath

Christ is the true Sabbath

Christ says rest in me: (, )

Christ alone gives true rest

If you think about that there is no way you can keep it. I mean

Christ desires to show mercy on the Sabbath

Christ takes the penalty for breaking the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is waiting its final accomplishment ()

Law as Friend

So how is this law a friend?

Do Christians have to obey this law? Yes. Like the Old Testament Sabbath looked back to what God was doing in creation, so we look forward. While we have about three references to Christians in the New Testament celebrating the Lord’s Supper, the clearest command is in . The word “gathering” there is very closely related to the word synagogue. Christians would have known what that meant. It means gather together with other Christians on the Lord’s Day.

How did the early Christians celebrate the Sabbath?

Are Christians to obey the Sabba

Preach the Word ()

Sing ()

Can I love Jesus but not go to church?

Take an offering ()

Prayer.

Take Communion

Read Scripture

Can I love Jesus but not go to church? No.

Jesus himself religiously kept the Sabbath setting an important example for us.

Jesus has given us the Church as a gift for celebrating the Sabbath. To reject the gift is to reject the giver.

Jesus gave a command. To disobey him shows you don’t think he is Lord.

You can’t worship God without God’s people.

This reasoning does not work with any other realm of our life: work, family, sports.

Is it a sin to miss church on Sunday?

Can I eat at restaurants on Sunday?

In most cases.

Sickness, military service, extenuating circumstances.

The key is, is something preventing you from going to church or are you looking for a reason not to go? Is going to church an afterthought, or is it something that is important to you.

Bad reasons to miss church: I am

Two encouragements

God is eager to show mercy for Sabbath breakers.

Church is a place where God wants to encourage you. This is an opportunity not an obligation.

Sata

Christ promises to give us far more in heaven than we have given up sacrificing for him.

What if I don’t like going to Church?

If everything about Church seems miserable to you, maybe church is not the problem.

The Sabbath is waiting its final accomplishment ()

Can I eat at restaurants on Sunday? Yes, as long as you make sure to be a blessing to those who you come into contact with.

What if I have to work on Sunday? What if I have to work. I don’t think it is wrong to go to work.

Example of Corinthians

We should be trying to get to the place where we can dedicate the whole Sunday to God.

Even if you do work, you should try to find a gathering of God’s people.

Conclusion

I want to end this morning back where we started. I think a lot of us think that the reason for our city’s Anderson’s struggles is because the GM factories closing. So, I have no wish to treat that lightly, or to deny that that was a traumatic event for this city and that many people were left swinging in the cold. But, the real reason for the social rot in Anderson, is because we have neglected God’s sabbath. We have allowed our churches to empty out and filled up our casinos and racing circuits. We have allowed our earthly family to replace our heavenly father. Dear friends, what would happen if we took God’s command to worship him on the Lord’s day seriously? How might that transform our lives? How might we start each new week with a reinvigorated heart and a gaze fixed on heaven.