The Sabbath Day

Ask them various things to try to emphasize how busy they are.

The topic for today is going to hopefully answer this question, “In a world where so much is already expected of me, is Sunday just another thing on a long list of expectations?” Is there any significance or need? Is it truly relevant for me?

1. The Sabbath Generates Child-like Admiration

Read Psalm 148

As we consider the 6 days of creation and the rest of the Father, we similarly are brought to witness the same cycle every week as we come to rest and consider Him and His marvelous works. This is a day where we are called to step away from the issues, the stress, and toil of our week and where we are called to meditate upon the greatness of God and to worship Him.

As we consider Him, it takes no searching, no google, no textbooks to look for the display of His greatness because creation declares His glory as the Psalmist says.

So, as we rest and consider Him on the Lord’s Day, let us be filled with child-like admiration as we take the time to look at the world that He has created and be filled with awe at His majesty.

The Psalmist in Psalm 146 might agree as he writes, “Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made the heaven and earth, The sea, and all that is in them. Who keeps truth forever,...” And being filled in awe at God the Creator, we are inevitably called to wonder as David, “Who is man that you are mindful of him?” and this will lead us into our next point...

2. The Sabbath Gives Confident Anticipation

In Genesis 2:1-2 we notice the usage of the words, “finished” and “ended His work”. In Hebrew this word is used in several other places in Scripture such as Exodus 40:33, Deuteronomy 31:24, and 1 Kings 6:14, to name a few. In these scenarios this word is constantly used to mean “completion” or “finish”.

Interestingly enough, this word is also used in our New Testament, most notably in John 19:30 where our crucified Lord cries, “It is finished!”. Finally, we see this word in Revelation 21:3-6 with a clear connection to Creation. “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” 5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” 6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”

What is the significance here? With God’s self-illustrative act of rest now instituting the Sabbath, as we understand from Ex. 20:8-11, we may find it interesting that as God calls us to honor the Lord’s Day with rest, worship, and adoration of Him. We, through such a time of consideration may contemplate this thought: If God, who is able to complete the creation of the kosmos in merely 6 days, with no need to continue working on it further, claims that He has finished the purchasing of our souls and that He will hold us fast until that final day then we may, with full assurance know that He is fully able to finish what He begins (Phil. 1:6).

If the same God created everything that exists in just 6 days, then I can rest that what He has started in me, He is able to finish. (Phil. 1:6)

So, as you and I open our eyes on the Lord’s Day and you feel don’t feel very Christian, perhaps you feel defeated and condemned. Well, as you gather to worship and fellowship with the Church. You may rest with the confident anticipation that the God of Creation, who we admire with childlike admiration, has promised the finality of our redemption and He has the testimony of the world to back His claim.

In Hebrews 4, the writer makes it clear that there is a promised eternal rest for the believer that was not achieved in Moses’s leadership or Joshua’s campaign, but in the One who is greater than them both which is Christ. He warns them to diligently strive to enter that final rest. (The aid to the Christian soldier in his striving is address next...)

3. The Sabbath Grants Christian Aid

In Mark 2:27-28 the Pharisees who are condemning the disciples of Christ for plucking heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath and here is what the Lord says to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Christ is saying to the Pharisees, “You guys don’t understand that the Sabbath isn’t meant to be a curse upon us, but a blessing! And He also drives His point a little further in stating that He is the Lord of the Sabbath. And that day is still set apart for a purpose, it’s still His day. As a matter of fact, in the New Covenant it is called, “The Lord’s Day.”

So, in Genesis 2:3 it is a day that is both blessed and sanctified by God, and in Mark 2 it is still set apart and holy and it is a day that has been set apart and blessed, why? For the good of man! We must think of how happy the Jews coming out of Egyptian bondage must’ve been to enjoy this. They’ve been beneath stern slavery and here they are, freed by the gracious deliverance of God and He delivers unto them the command to rest and enjoy Him and adore Him on the Sabbath. They would’ve gone from working every day of the year to immediately being given about 7.5 weeks of vacation a year by the Lord.

In Hebrews 3-4 we see that the Lord’s Day was not only a gift for man, but Ligon Duncan adds, “it is a promise for believers for a rest which we experience in part now and which we look for in the future, in the new heavens and the new earth.”

So, what does it mean that God has blessed the Sabbath day? I find it interesting that His first words to mankind were words of blessing and the next day God rests and blesses the Sabbath day for the man’s benefit. But what does that mean? Well, in His blessing God has effectively provided that day as a means of blessing to our lives for those who will sanctify it as a day for rest and worship and service to the Lord.

But He also sanctifies it. And what that means is that God has set it apart for a holy use as a day for the Lord Himself. Moses, in Exodus 20:8-11 “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, and therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Moses is saying, the reason we honor and remember the Sabbath day is because this is what God established in Creation.

So, God, the mighty and caring Creator, reaches forth His loving hand and waves us in from the toil and the sweat and the stress of the world and says to us, “Hey, come rest. Come enjoy me. Come find strength for your souls! Fellowship with your brothers whom I have redeemed. Be refreshed and enjoy me!”

But not only is the Sabbath a memorial of God’s blessing from Creation, but it is also a memorial of God’s redemptive work. In Deuteronomy 5:13-15 Moses stresses something else as he says, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” So, now he is stressing the fact that we also remember the Sabbath as a memorial of God’s deliverance of them from captivity. And so do we today!

Conclusion

Q. So, in a world with so many demands on you, is Sunday just another expectation to meet?

A. Well, what we have learned today is that God has graciously set aside the Lord’s day for our encouragement, rest, and nurture as believers.

As Sunday approaches, we are called to come be strengthened for the fight, to be encouraged by our brethren, to rest and enjoy the Lord who created us, and we are called to be reminded of that coming eternal joy. The Lord’s Day as a day of rest is a picture of the eternal rest that Christ has purchased for us that we will one day receive as our inheritance.