The True Sabbath Keeper.

Our message this morning is entitled “The True Sabbath Keeper.” Have you stopped to wonder what keeping the Sabbath means? Most of my life, I just translated that to mean the Lord’s Day or Sunday. Whatever rules applied to the Israelite people on the Sabbath are the same rules I am to live by on Sunday. Go to church, eat lunch, don’t do any common work such as harvest until the sun goes down.

Sound familiar to you? Maybe in some cultures it was even more strict to the point of no games or sports. No throwing a baseball. No repairs on equipment, no physical exertion of any kind…but the waitress and cook can work right?

So the question I ask is this. Is the Lord’s Day of the new covenant the Sabbath of the Old Covenant? Good thing that Scripture helps us to answer this. Let’s see what Jesus has to say about this.

In Luke’s gospel, we are being taught who Jesus is and what that means for us who say we are followers of Christ. Jesus has revealed his authority in his teachings and to forgive sin. He has authority over temptation, sickness and demons.

Last week we saw how Jesus is bringing in the new covenant of grace that replaces the law which was the guardian or school teacher until Jesus came. Now Jesus is going to flesh out what the heart of the law really means for the Christian. This will be explained throughout chapter 6. For today, Jesus is going to define for us the heart of the Sabbath. Please turn with me to Luke 6:1-11. READ

The key verse that I want to draw your attention to is in (5). “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” I want to unpack this first as it will help tie our two Sabbath controversies together. Let’s first of all define three terms: Son of Man, Lord, and Sabbath. If you recall from (5:24) Jesus gives this title “Son of Man” to himself. Son of Man means that as God he took on the human flesh of man. Secondly, Lord means owner, creator, and master. One who is the ruler and in full authority.

Lastly is Sabbath. God gave Israel the 10 commandments of the moral law. One of the laws was to observe the Sabbath so that his people would be reminded each week that they honour God who saved them from Egypt and to follow the pattern of the creation of the universe. In 6 days God created and on the 7th day he rested. Does this mean that God was tired from his hard work and needed to rest? Well Isaiah 40:28 lets us know that the Creator of heaven & earth does not faint or grow weary. So what does this rest mean on the 7th day? God saw all he had created and saw it was very good and he enjoyed the “work” of his hands. Israel was to observe this day being Saturday to worship their God and to remind them that they need God. They were to rest in the finished work of God.

So now with those defined, we see that Jesus is telling his listeners that as the God-man, he has all authority as owner or master of the Sabbath to say what it really means in this new age of grace.

Hebrews 4 lets us know that for all who believe in Jesus enter into our Sabbath rest in Jesus. What does this mean? We enter into a day??? What the author of Hebrews means is that we cannot obey the law as God demands perfect obedience. Therefore we are sinners and God’s judgement is upon us as rebels to our Creator. In God’s love for the world, He sends Jesus to earth, takes on human flesh and does this “work” for us. He fulfills the law and its demands. He pays our sin debt on the cross. When we trust in person of Jesus as our Saviour our grave clothes are removed from us and his perfect work of righteousness is placed on us like the royal robe of a son. Alive in Christ.

Thus, we now enter into the Sabbath rest, into Christ who has fulfilled the demands of the law. We as Christians now are resting from our works from the law and embrace the grace found only in Jesus. We are now righteous in God’s sight because of the finished work of Jesus, the Beloved Son. This is the gospel, this is the best news ever.

As Jesus is the lord of the Sabbath who has purchased us by his blood, we now joyfully obey all the teachings of Jesus. Not perfectly but with desire to be obedient because we now obey the law of love as Jesus will explain throughout the inspired New Testament.

Now, how does Jesus define the meaning of the Sabbath that he is Lord over?

(1) has us enter into an occasion where on a Sabbath, Jesus and his disciples were travelling through some grain fields and his disciples were hungry so they stripped some heads and ate them. Obviously, the Pharisees were among the followers because immediately they come to Jesus and question why his disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

There were so many Sabbath rules that hardly anyone could keep the Sabbath. Such as how far you could walk, no preparing meals and no starting a fire. They lost the meaning of the Sabbath which was to worship and enjoy God. These rules are how you define legalism.

Jesus replies to them about how David did what was not lawful by eating the bread of the Presence. In 1st Samuel 21, David and his men were fleeing from King Saul for their life. They were hungry and came to Ahimelech the priest and asked for food. The priest said there was no common bread, but if your men have not defiled themselves they are welcome to the holy bread. He gave David and his men this bread and blessed them even though it was not lawful as it was designated only for the priests. If David as the future anointed King was permitted to eat out of hunger, how much more should Jesus as the Creator?

This most important proclamation is then made in (5) “And he (Jesus) said to them (Pharisees)’The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’”.

On another Sabbath, Jesus was teaching and there happened to be a man there with a crippled up hand. The Pharisees were watching Jesus. This again reveals their heart condition. They wanted evidence of Jesus breaking “their” Sabbath laws so they could accuse him later. They were not watching with an eye to see if he could heal but rather whether he would heal on the Sabbath. They were acting as if they owned the Sabbath. This word “watched” is to be understood as spied or out of the corner of their eye.

If they were honestly questioning in their heart whether Jesus was in fact God’s Son that would be great. But it wasn’t, their hearts were hardened and calloused towards the God they said they worshipped.

Is this not the heart of every unbeliever? In spite of the evidence of creation. In spite of seeing their friends abandoning the booze and lust of the flesh. They see their buddies now following Jesus, forgiving people, helping their enemies. In spite of all that they see, the refuse to accept the miraculous power of the gospel that transforms lives. Is this you? Are you like the Pharisees? Please don’t make the same mistake they made. Repent of sin and trust in Christ alone for your salvation. And find rest for your weary souls in the true and only Sabbath keeper.

Jesus as God knew their thoughts (8) for what they were planning but that did not stop or scare him. Their thoughts were of the darkness of their minds, but Jesus is the light and therefore brings the man with the withered hand to come and stand before him in front of all the people. The question Jesus asks the Pharisees now should cause them to tremble in fear, but it doesn’t. “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?”

This here is the heart of the Sabbath law according to the Lord or master of the Sabbath. Should one do good and save life on the Sabbath or do evil and destroy life? Wow! At the heart of God, the Sabbath was never about certain rules to obey but the law of love and compassion for your fellow man.

After what I would imagine was some very uncomfortable moments of silence Jesus says to the man “Stretch out your hand.” His hand was immediately restored to full health. Jesus heals the man as an answer to his own question in doing good. But notice in (11) how the Pharisees respond to this wonderful miracle. They were filled with fury, a pathological losing of their mind bearing their fangs as ravenous wolves in wanting to tear Jesus apart over what Jesus did and said to them.

Jesus as the Son of Man who is Lord of the Sabbath says that doing good and saving life is always the meaning of every day as all days are holy unto the Lord Jesus as the Sabbath keeper or you could say Sabbath fulfiller. But with this clarification made by God, the Pharisees and scribes do exactly opposite and plot evil in wanting to destroy the life of Jesus. Who are they serving? They reveal who they serve by their actions. Not the Lord of the Sabbath but of the devil.

So what do we do with this teaching of Jesus?

We must all admit that at times we all still have that bit of Pharisee in us. Do you ever look at someone else to see if they will fail in their obedience to God so you can have a juicy bit of gossip? Do you ever take pleasure in seeing someone else fall into sin so that you can seem better than them? That at least I am not sinning like that person? This is the pride of a Pharisee in thinking our piety is better than others. If this is you, repent and confess it to God. This is not uncommon as I have to fight this often as well.

Sadly, some who say they are Christian are in reality living under the law which only leads to death. They say as we learned last week “the old is good.” Continuing down this path leads only to destruction. Either it is self righteous snobbery like the Pharisees or it leads to despair under the weight of the law that they just can’t obey. Since they can’t measure up, they give up and fall away from the faith they professed in Jesus. Trust me, seen it happen just recently.

Brothers and sisters, through the gospel of grace, the right response to Jesus as our Saviour and Lord is that we now have a holy calling to obey him out of a grateful heart for saving us. As God enjoyed his creation because it was very good, we now have entered into that Sabbath rest in Jesus in the new creation. Let us therefore live lives of holy and joyous worship in the new age of grace. We desire to do good and save life in obedience to the law of love, mercy and liberty.

If we acted this way, what would it say about who we serve?

I believe it would give a better picture to the world of who we are as Christians. They would see our love for one another not from a self righteous law keeping mentality that bends to whichever way suits ourselves. Rather, we would be seen as humble people that love God and love our neighbour.

I believe that immature believers would learn the law of love from first hand sight as we disciple one another.

I believe that our obedience to the law of love would lead to more opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus. To talk to family and friends about the Lord that we serve joyfully.

To answer the question posed at the beginning: Does the Lord’s Day of the new covenant replace the Sabbath of the old covenant?

No. The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath(5). Since he owns and fulfills the Sabbath as our rest, this means that God’s requirement of “works” is completed. By trusting in Jesus, He becomes our rest from self righteous works and sacrifices for sin.” It is finished” as Jesus says on the cross. This is the new age of grace we now enter by faith. Meditating on Hebrews 3:7-4:13 will be most helpful in further study of what we discussed today.

PRAY

Benediction: 1 John 5:1–4

[1] Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. [2] By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. [3] For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. [4] For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (ESV)