QUESTION OF THE SABBATH

Question of the Sabbath

20190922su-SERMON- Question of the Sabbath Ge 2:1-3 / Mk 2:23

SERMON SYNOPSIS

The Sabbath. The day of rest and reflection. God created, God sanctified, God Commanded. The penalty was death for those who ignored or violated this hallowed day. How is the Lord's 7th day Sabbath related to the Sunday we call the Lord's Day? WHY? That is what we will investigate today.

OPENING PRAYER

Father of LIGHT and of LIFE, we gather this morning on this LORD'S Day with open hearts and eager ears. We pray LORD, that You will teach us Your Will through Your WORD as it pertains to the SABBATH, and to the New Beginning. Paint for us, O Lord, a picture that we can comprehend. That we may understand the great value and Holy worth in the sanctification and blessing in the day of rest, and prayerfully, see the beautiful transition and seamless blending of the OLD and the NEW. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, You are ALWAYS welcomed in our midst, we Worship and Revere You, Amen.

SERMON

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.  (2)  By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.  (3)  Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Gen 2:1-3

The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew Shabbath, and its direct meaning is to "desist". God made Holy the 7th day and the value and importance can be weighed by witnessing where it appears in Scripture. Immediatelyupon finishing the creation of all that is in six literal days, God commanded a mandatory day of rest, a day of reflection. A day of worship and adoration to the Potter from the clay formed of His hand. The Sabbath is a wonderful gift from the Creator, extending not just to mankind but to beasts and animals of burden was well. The command is that you should not do work, but that you should not force others to work on your behalf, affording time to contemplate the Awe in His creation. Beautiful in it's simplicity.

Since we do not have a reliable time stamp of the SIX DAYS OF CREATION, we can reliably pick up the historic time markers at about 2400 BC. at the tail-end of the BRONZE age. The Great Flood took place in about 2304 BC, leaving the world void of all living things except for those who were aboard the Ark. Biblical silence with regard to honoring the command of God to keep the Sabbath Holy extends at least from what we know to be as accurate as possible, from 2400 BC to 1447 BC and the Israelites being fed with Manna from God as Moses led them through the wilderness FOR FORTY YEARS! This silence does not, however, point to or indicate non-attention to the Lord's Sabbath. We can safely deduce that among all the SINS of mankind that led to the Great flood and capture by the Egyptians with the subsequent Exodus and the giving of the LAW, mankind ignoring the Sabbath was one of many heart breaking issues that Man became very good at!

Exo 16:22-24  Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread,[Manna] two omers [ about two quarts] for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses,  (23)  then he said to them, "This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning."  (24)  So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it.

As God continued to teach and test those of Israel. The Manna would appear on the ground in the morning and would have to be collected and consumed that day. Only the authorized amount was to be harvested and eaten. Any extra would spoil quickly overnight and have worms in it by sunrise. Lessons learned in this process taught good Stewardship, work ethic, ability to follow instructions and realization of penalty when the rules were not followed. Only on the SIXTH day could the people collect extra Manna and hold it over for use on the 7th Day, the day of rest.

Exo 16:22-30  Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses,   then he said to them, "This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning."   So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it.   Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.   "Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none."   It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.   Then the LORD said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions?   "See, the LORD has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day."    So the people rested on the seventh day.

The Fourth Commandment to Honor and keep the Sabbath under the penalty of death was and is an eternal beacon to every created being for the glory to the Creator.

Exo 23:12  "Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves.

The beauty and majesty of God's gift to all through the Sabbath has often been overlooked. Throughout the Old Testament, the strict adherence to the Sabbath waxed and waned a great deal. More and more, as biblical history marched forward to the commencement of the Maccabaean revolt, during the so called silent years leading to the New Testament, three significant sins were at the very top of the SIN laden hit-parade; COVETOUSNESS, ADULTRY / FORNICATION, and Blasphemy of the SABBATH.

J. Skinner comments in the HASTINGS Bible Dictionary that:

"Accordingly the Sabbath law was (next to His own Messianic claims) the chief subject of contention between our Lord and the Pharisees. As regards our Lord’s own attitude, it is enough to say that it combined reverence for the ordinance, in so far as it served religious ends (Luk_4:16), with a resolute vindication of the principle that ‘the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath’ (Mar_2:27). Similarly, in the Pauline Epistles the Sabbath is relegated, either inferentially (Rom_14:5f., Gal_4:9ff.) or expressly (Col_2:16f.), to the category of things morally indifferent, with regard to which each man must follow the dictates of his conscience. It is significant also that the decree of the Council of Jerusalem does not impose the observance of the Sabbath on the Gentile Churches (Act_15:29).

The Birth, Life, Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ DOES NOT take away value or importance regarding God's Gift, the SABBATH on the 7th day: Mar 2:27-28  Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  "So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Jesus demonstrated this time and time again in His actions that even healing on the SABBATH was a Glory producing accolade to the Father, thus honoring the santification of the day, and God's command to Honor the day. What ever we do, on ANY day, we should do it to bring Glory to God!

NOW. Here, in the New Testament, is where we witness the new Church of Jesus Christ and its relationship to what would become the LORD's DAY;

Mat 28:1  Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. SUNDAY WAS THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK!

And HERE in John; Joh 20:19  So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and *said to them, "Peace be with you."

The relation of the Lord’s Day [SUNDAY] to the Sabbath [SATURDAY] can be best defined as one of close affinity rather than of identity. Certainly one does NOT replace the other. The SABBATH will always be the SABBATH. It sprang from the love of God for man, providing by religious sanction for the definite setting apart of the seventh day as a time for rest from labour and for communion with God.

Follow along as I read: Act 2:1  When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. This was on a SUNDAY! The FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. The promised HOLY SPIRIT had arrived!

And this: Act 20:7  On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. [it is here that a young man named Eutychus fell out of a 2nd story window, broke his neck and Paul healed him. 1Co 16:2  On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. This day...SUNDAY, the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, became a time of gathering for the New Church, a day of breaking bread, of fellowship, of common support and of love. It did not run afoul of the SABBATH. It complimented the SABBATH. Separately, SUNDAY became the Lord's Day.

SUMMARY

When God Blessed and Sanctified the 7th day as a SABBATH day of rest, it was a gift to His creation who toil and sweat and do all manner of labor six days in the week. On the 7th day, the Lord gave us a day of rest and reflection, of refreshment. We are expected to honor this gift in extension to those who work for us, including our animals. This is what God Blessed and Sanctified the morning of the 7th day. God's later COMMANDENT to honor the SABBATH as being mandatory resulted from man's abuses of God's gift.

Our Lord's Day activities on Sunday, attending church, worship, and in some cases an extension of the tenants of the SABBATH on the Saturday, coincide with the Resurrection of Christ Jesus [ON A SUNDAY] and the subsequent day of Pentecost [ON A SUNDAY] and the day those followers of Jesus would come together to break bread and hear the teachings directly from the Master, The Son of God, Jesus the CHRIST. Sunday, The LORD's DAY.

CLOSING PRAYER

O Lord God, how very blessed we are to gather in Your name, to reflect, study, learn Your Word and Your ways. We are like baby birds chirping in the nest, always hungry for Your Word, always thirsty for Your Love and Peace. I pray that we never, ever become satisfied, that we never are fully filled, that our hunger for Your truth will always press us forward into Your mighty arms. In the precious name of Jesus of Nazareth, Amen.

BENEDICTION AND CLOSE

1Th 5:23-24  Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

SUPPORTING SCRIPTURE

Gen 2:1-3, Exo 16:22-24, 22-30, 23:12, Luk 4:16, Mar 2:27-28, Rom 14:5,

Gal 4:9, Col 2:16, Act 2:1, 15:29, 20:7, Mat 28:1, Joh 28:19, 1 Cor 16:2, 1Ths 5:23-24