Sermons

The Forgotten Commandment #2: Keep the Sabbath

The Sabbath is God’s amazing gift to mankind that we are cautioned not to reject.

We don’t always forget about Sunday, but many times we forget about the Sabbath.

1) What is the Sabbath and how did we get here?
    a) Commanded: Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: 9 You are to labor six days and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work — you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. 11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.
      • Reason: God made it holy, set it apart, and set a precedent for everyone to follow.
      • Prescription: Work 6 days, rest for one. Align yourself with the moral grain of the universe.
      • Worship: Offer sacrifices in the temple (Numbers 28:9-10) Dedicate it to God as a sign (Exodus 31:15)

    b) Corrupted:
       • Return: After the exile, great lengths were taken to observe the Sabbath, introducing myriad of rules.
       • Irony: The 200+ rules during Jesus time undermined the Sabbath’s very purpose.

    c) Co-opted:
       • Saturday: a day to worship and read scripture for the early church.
       • Sunday: a day to remember Christ by sharing a meal: The Eucharist (1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10)
       • Combined: 2nd century all activities moved to Sunday as distinguishing Christianity from Judaism.

2) Why should we observe the Sabbath?
Mark 2:27-28
27 Then He told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
    a) Earthly Rest: What did Jesus Model?
       • Abstained from “making a living work”.
       • Did good and healed people.
       • Worshiped through prayer, scripture, and teaching.

    b) Why go to church?
       • Sunday is not a Holy day, what we do on Sunday, makes it holy.
Hebrews 10:24-25
24 And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, 25 not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
       • Everything is disposable in a consumer culture, but church is indispensable.
       • Not about you, but it is FOR you.
       • Show me a believer who forgoes church, and I’ll show you a person who has forgone belief.
       • It is God’s tremendous gift to us that we can rest in his work, and not in our own.

    c) Heavenly Rest: what did Jesus die for?
Hebrew 4:8-11
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. 10 For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His. 11 Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.
      • Through Joshua Israel found temporary rest in the promised land, but through Jesus we find eternal rest in Heaven.
      • The Pattern of the Sabbath is there to protect us from a pattern of destruction