Holiness in Time

2 Announcements

There is a Phishing email going around..>Someone has an email address that is using my name and contacting people at REC. I am looking into this but it is very common, and I just wanted to let you know from up here that I am not sending emails where I will want you to send me money…so please report that account to gmail

Secondly. I wanted to give you an update on our search for a worship leader. We had applications open for a little over a month…We spoke with a number of people, we did a few initial interviews and narrowed it down to two. Right now we have a lead candidate but there are still a couple more hoops to jump through so bear with us....We are trying to find the right person without dragging our feet

Set Apart

How are you different from your neighbors?

I ask this question because for thousands of years the Jewish people have had one thing that has significantly set them apart from their neighbors, and that is that they completely stop working on the 7th day.

So for Jewish people this is from Friday Sundown to Saturday Sundown.

For generations, wherever Jewish people have been in the world they have taken the seventh day off to do no work.

It set them apart from their neighbors

In ancient Rome, every 8 days there was a sort of a rest, and that was so that children would not go to school but they would help in bringing the harvest to market...But to take an entire day off…This was just unheard of

The french revolutionary calendar had a 10 day week and once every 9 days there would be a day for leisure

The soviet union had a six day work week and each worker was randomly assigned a color so they would give certain colors a day off for rest…I don’t know how often this occured

Still in many countries around the world there is a 6 day work week , Mexico, Hong Kong, India...

It wasn't until 1908 that America had a 5 day work week...

So sitting here today it might be easy to think that we have always just had a weekend but the reality is that this is a very modern thing that we get to enjoy...

The Jewish Sabbath and the Early Church declaring Sunday as the Lord’s day has actually shaped our work week.

Observing the sabbath made them stand out in their land

While everyone else was chopping wood for the fire to cook, on Fridays, Jews chopped twice the wood and built a fire twice the size, prepared their food in advance and just didn't work from Friday sundown to Saturday Sundown.

But you might be here this morning and your confused....

Wait…I thought we are in a series called “More than Forgiveness” a study in holiness…what on earth does the sabbath have to do with Holiness?

I am glad you asked, Flip with me to Genesis 2…as we take this journey together

As we flip there let me recap last week a bit for us...

Last week we talked about the Holiness of God.

We talked about the unapproachable and Holy God...That his presence is dangerous not because its bad but because it is so good.

We looked at these two stories

1 where moses approached this burning bush, and he had to take his sandals off because he was standing on Holy ground…Then much later, moses was actually allowed to be with God face to face...

Moses went through a period of time of sanctification…where he was set apart from sin…he was made pure so he could be with God

Then we looked at Aaron’s two sons. His two sons were ordained as priests…told exactly what to do and then they treated God’s holiness as common, just like any other thing and they burned up for it

So the idea is that the Holiness of God is impotrant…God is not common, and at the end of last week we peered into heaven and asked…how do we respond to God’s holiness?

By laying our crown’s down...

So that was last week…Responding to God’s holiness…and this week I want to talk about how we are shaped by it....

Genesis 2:1–3 (NIV)

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

God made all of creation the first 6 days

But the very first thing he made holy was time.

So there is there is this amazing connection to resting in God and experiencing Holiness

The Sabbath rhythm trains us for holiness

The very first time that the word holy is used in the bible is about a day…the day that we call the sabbath

The word holy is the word “Kedash”

It means to be sacred or concentrated

It means set apart…This is what holiness is…it is being set apart for God’s purposes

Do you think its any mistake that God made a day then later gave a command that we are supposed to keep the sabbath? Literally one of the 10 commandments says this

Exodus 20:8 NIV

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

My guess is that as christians some of you might be thinking, this is a jewish thing this isn't a christian thing…Wasn’t Jesus violating the sabbath like crazy??? NO! He restored its original intention…We still desperately need it today

That the sabbath isn't this legalistic day, but the sabbath is a day for restoration

Its a day to spend with God for the resurrection of our souls!

But I don’t think its any mistake that God did this

So God calls us one day a week to rest. To rest from our work, to enter into his presence

So how does the sabbath train us for holiness?

How do you think spending one day a week for the rest of your life, resting in God’s presence will shape you?

It will help you understand that just like this day that is set apart from the rest of the days, your life is to be set apart.

There are thousands of years of observation on how the sabbath has shaped people for holiness and I want to share those with you today:

Keeping the sabbath forces us to renounce our own dominion over time

I love this quote by the rabbi Matitiahu Tseva

"One day out of seven the Israelite is to renounce dominion over his own time and recognize God's dominion over it”

..."Keeping the Sabbath is acceptance of the kingdom and sovereignty of God."

-Matitiahu Tseva

Keeping the sabbath means you have to admit that you don’t have dominion over time…Six days a week, a calendar runs our schedule…our kids need to be three different places, people have birthdays and graduations, you have to grocery shop, get to the dentist and go to the doctor...

One week of doing all of that might make you think that your pretty good…That you have mastered your schedule

But 30 years of doing that makes you believe that you own time...

Its in the ownership of things of time that we begin to believe that we are pretty special

Just think of some of the things we say without ever thinking about it

“I don’t have time for that.”

“Or I have all the time in the world”

The Sabbath reality is a reminder that God sets up holy space in time because he owns it all.

See, The sabbath is just another way where we surrender ourselves

In the same way that regular tithing is a declaration that God owns it all, and that we return his money back to him

The sabbath is a way of saying that God is the author of this whole world and we are setting ourselves apart for him

And to my point in the beginning, it is a physical tangible reminder that we are called to be God’s set apart people

Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote one of the greatest books on sabbath that I have ever read and I want to read you this quote from the book

“To gain control of the world of space is certainly one of our tasks, the danger begins when in gaining control over the realm of space that we forfeit all aspirations to the realm of time. There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give ,not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our soul concern”

and then he says

“God is not in things of space but moments of time”

I love that end quote…God is not in things of space but in time...

People spend thousands of dollars going on pilgrimages to see “Holy sites.” When I was in Israel about 12 years ago people walked up to the wailing wall as if God lived in that wall....and don’t get me wrong…Super cool that the temple wall is still there

But that is just an old wall now. That wall is not the way that God is present in this world.

God is not found in objects but in time...

And we have this predisposition to chase after objects...

The reality is that the realization that you do not have dominion over time....so much so that you stop and rest is like an act of rebellion in our world...

Our world is constantly pushing the rat race…go go go!!!! Do more…Aquire more things...

But what you really need is time with God!

But when you say NO! ONE DAY A WEEK, whether Saturday or Sunday I am just going to take time to be with God! you are rebelling against our world’s system of being!

In order to encounter God’s holiness we need to rest with him

And doing this on a regular basis over years will shape you

Which brings me to my next point:

practicing sabbath trains us for eternity

maybe you are thinking....what? How does resting for a day a week train us for heaven…and keep in mind, heaven is where you encounter God’s holiness at its peak…its like flying into the center of the sun.

Well for thousands of years people have been pouring over Genesis 1-3 and making observations...

So I just want to show you something that is so obvious but that often times we miss when we read Genesis..>What I am going to show you is a highly copped up version of Genesis 1…but it is to show you a pattern that exists in the text

Genesis 1 (NIV)

God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation... And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night... And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures... And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.... And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Do you notice that the first 6 days have a morning and an evening?

They begin and then they end

Genesis 2:1–3 NIV

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Do we notice something missing on this day?

The seventh day is called the eternal day. Because it is a day that never ends...

Again Rabbi Abraham Hershel

“It was a vision of the Messianic day in which the hope of restoring the unity of all men was won.”

Literally the Jews and Christians alike have had the understanding that the sabbath is a picture of what heaven is like for thousands of years...

This is the eternal day!

In the book of Exodus when God is commanding his people to sabbath it says this

Exodus 31:17 NIV

It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”

“Every seventh day a miracle comes to pass, the resurrection of the soul, of the soul of man and of all things. A mid-evil sage declares: The wold which was created in six days was a world without a soul. It was on the seventh day that the world was given a soul. This is why it is said: “and on the seventh day he rested (exodus 31:17)

The word for refreshed here is the same word for Soul in Hebrew…What commentators have said is that God gives you a new birth in your soul when you rest in Him. The rabbais call this refreshed a mini resurrection

We don’t have the time to go over it all today but Hebrews 4 talks about the promise of entering God’s rest…and he makes this argument…that the Jews thought they’d find rest with Joshua in the promise land…but that ultimately didn’t happen …But now we have a savior who conquered death and that we can share in his rest now!

The author is making the point that now that Jesus is our ultimate sabbath rest...

When I say that the sabbath trains us for eternity…Think about it

last week we looked at the holiness of God and the question is like…who can stand in that presence? In the presence of a Holy God...

But imagine you live till 80 and you have always taken one day out of the week to rest and enjoy God and worship Him…thats 4,160 days…I am willing to bet that setting time aside to be in God’s presence is transformative…not just for a day but for a life time

what you do here on earth trains you for an eternity with God

So if you are not seeking after his holiness here and now…How could you ever stand to be in the presence of a Holy God?

My favorite author, Dallas Willard was once asked, “who goes to heaven?”

And this is a great question

Who can possibly stand being in the presence of a Holy God?

Dallas’ response was brilliant…To the question of who goes to heaven, his reply was ...“All of those who could possibly stand it”

Taking one day out of the week to seek after being in the presence of God…giving up your time, actually trains us to spend eternity with him

And I want to end on this point

Jesus invites us to rest with him

The invitation of Jesus is to rest with him

Matthew 11:28–30 NIV

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I think more than anything else this passage has had a serious impact on me.

Now its impotrant to come to church, but Jesus doesn't say…Come to church and I will give you rest...

You spend enough time volunteering around here and you will find out its just another rat race…I mean its great, don’t get me wrong…but serving in the church can wear you out...

So Jesus doesn’t say go make a few million and you’ll find real rest...

No you will just spend the rest of your days figuring out how to protect it, invest it or spend it...

Jesus didn’t say go out and work on that reputation and then you will have made it…you will have true rest...

You’ll just spend a ton of time and effort trying to figure out how to not say something that is dumb and you’ll constantly be serving what other people think of you

Jesus says come to me

And off load all of the heavy stuff

Why?

Because Jesus is the only one who can make you holy...

Your piety doesn't make you holy

Your money wont do it

your reputation is only going to hurt you

But Jesus says come to me because He is the only one in the world who can possibly make you holy...’

Who can offload your junk and walk with you for a transformed life

This is the invitation of Jesus to sabbath with him

And the sabbath was made holy....why?

Because you are called to find your life in it

Just as God set apart a day, he wants to set apart your life

Just as God made a day a picture of eternity, he wants you to join him in eternity and experience his holiness

Just as God made a day holy, he can make you holy

Some of you might think its silly to preach on the Sabbath the second week into a holiness series…but See God built this vehicle for us to enjoy him, to come into his holiness and to experience transformation

Through the sabbath, I really believe that God wants us to experience his holiness

Challenge

So what sets you apart from your neighbors?

What I would hope is that from this church it is a commitment to chase after the holiness of God