[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on the 2nd Sunday morning in Lent, the 17th of March, 2019 at Pilgrim Reformed Church. Look for the video of this and our other services on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
The term “24/7” is probably very familiar to all of us. It refers to some aspect of life that goes on for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some even add “365” to the end of that, meaning that it goes on for 365 days a year.
Now no one person can really go 24/7. We need to sleep some, to let our bodies and minds rest and recover from the day’s activities. But with the hustle and bustle of our modern world, it seems we have less and less time for rest.
Family, this is not what God wants for us. He wants us to rest… no, He commands us to rest! Listen and follow along as I read what God ordered through Moses in the Book of Exodus, chapter 20 verses 8 through 11, from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…
Now no one person can really go 24/7. We need to sleep some, to let our bodies and minds rest and recover from the day’s activities. But with the hustle and bustle of our modern world, it seems we have less and less time for rest.
Family, this is not what God wants for us. He wants us to rest… no, He commands us to rest! Listen and follow along as I read what God ordered through Moses in the Book of Exodus, chapter 20 verses 8 through 11, from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 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 cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
--Exodus 20:8-11 (NKJV)
Let us pray… Father God, You created us. You know how we work, how we function. And You know what we need. We need food and water, we need shelter from the harsh elements, and we need rest, for our bodies and our minds and our spirits. That’s why You don’t just ask us to rest, You command us to rest. Speak to this morning and teach us the lesson we need to hear and understand. This we pray in the blessed name of Your Son Jesus. Amen.
Presbyterian pastor and theologian J. Vernon McGee tells the story of a man who wanted to argue about the Sabbath. The man said to McGee, "I'll give you $100 if you will show me where the Sabbath day has been changed." McGee answered, "I don't think it has been changed. Saturday is Saturday, it is the seventh day of the week, and it is the Sabbath day. I realize our calendar has been adjusted, and can be off a few days, but we won't even consider that point. The seventh day is still Saturday, and it is still the Sabbath day." The man got a gleam in his eye and said, "Then why don't you keep the Sabbath day if it hasn't been changed?" McGee answered, "the day hasn't changed, but I have been changed. I've been given a new nature now, I am joined to Christ; I am a part of the new creation. We celebrate the first day because that is the day He rose from the grave."
We celebrate Sunday, the first day of the week, as our Sabbath because that is when Jesus rose from the grave, paving the way for us to also rise from the grave when He returns. So I have to ask… Do we celebrate Sunday as the Sabbath? How do we celebrate our Sabbath, our day of rest?
Not everyone is a Christian, of course, and some folks have no choice but to work on Sundays. But what about the rest of us? How do we celebrate Sundays? Christian author and speaker Karen Burton Mains asks a few questions of her own, then makes a rather pointed answer. Mrs. Mains wrote…
“Do you rush, push, shout and become generally unpleasant on Sunday mornings? Do you complain about church? Are you irregular in your attendance? Are you over-conscientious about matters that are not really important? Do you always criticize the pastor, the choir, the length of services and the usher crew? Then don't be surprised if your children grow up to look at Sundays as the worst day of the week.”
There are a lot of reasons for folks to miss church on any given Sunday. Some have to work, sometimes it’s the only day a particular event is occurring, or there are times when we’re away from home and can’t attend. But family, people are staying away from church in droves these days. It’s a problem all over the Christian world. It has to be more than those few things I just mentioned. I can’t help but wonder if, as Mrs. Mains questions, we aren’t part of the problem ourselves.
How do we treat Sundays? As a day of worship and rest, or as just another day, but one that we happen to attend church on? Today is the 2nd Sunday in Lent, but what does Sunday really mean to us?
Now God didn’t mean for the Sabbath to be just one day of the week. There are many instances in our Bible when the seventh time period is to be set aside for rest, such as allowing fields to lie sallow, to rest, every seventh year. Through Moses, God established a time of solemn rest and atonement, once every seven months. In Leviticus chapter 16, verses 30 and 31, God has Moses tell us…
Our Father God is so concerned about our sins and the damage they do us, that He set apart one day for the atonement of our sins. He set aside the tenth day of the seventh month of each year for this very purpose. One day every seven months that we can rest before Him, humble ourselves and take seriously what He set in place for us just so we can be at one with Him. I don’t know of anyone, myself included, that observes this day of solemn rest.
Let’s not think all this about the Sabbath is strictly Old Testament, old times, long forgotten. Jesus often spoke of the Sabbath. I’d like to look at just one such instance. Please listen and follow along as I read from the Gospel account of the Apostle Mark, chapter 2 verse 23 through chapter 3 verse 5…
In the little story I told at the start, Rev. McGee explained why we Christians choose to observe Sunday as our Sabbath. His remarks point to what the Apostle Paul wrote in chapter 2 of his letter to the Colossians, when he said that Jesus nailed the ordinances, the letter of the law, to the cross. The Jews of Jesus’ day idolized the law, worshiped the law more than God. Jesus took that idolatry to the cross and left it in the grave, along with our sins. First Jesus acknowledged what we believers today know, that He is indeed the Lord of the Sabbath. As such, He is in the perfect position to tell us just what the Sabbath means to us.
And Jesus said that man was not created to serve the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath was made to serve man! God gave us the Sabbath because we need it! We need to rest, we need to humble ourselves before our Lord, we need to worship our Father God!
Now I’m not going to get into whether God really needed to rest after working six days. I don’t care if it were really six 24-hour days, or six billion years. Personally, I think God can do anything He wants to do in any time He wants to do it, faster than a hummingbird can flap its wings, and with no need of rest.
But we’re not God and we need our rest. More importantly, we need to remember just who we are, what we are. We are God’s. He made us, He owns us, we belong to Him. We owe Him for everything, including our very existence. So let us humble ourselves and worship Him!
Sure, there are legitimate reasons for us to miss church every now and then. But we can still rest, humble ourselves, and worship God even if we are not in a house of worship. Let us remember the Sabbath that God gave us, and keep it holy. In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You care so much about us and the damage that our sins do us, that You set aside one day each week for us to rest. You set aside one day for us to remember who You are, who we are, and how much we owe You. Thank You, Father, for giving us a Sabbath. Please help us to keep it holy. Help us to truly use this day for rest and for worshiping You. Please forgive us when we let the busyness of life keep us from our time of worship and our time of fellowship with our brother and sister believers.
Please hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, speaking from our hearts, promising to turn from our sin, seeking Your forgiveness for our disobedience…
Lord Jesus, as God, You are the Lord of the Sabbath. You are the Lord of all, including us. You saw how man was respecting the Law more than the giver of the Law, so You reminded us that the Law and the Sabbath were created by God for our benefit, and not the other way around. Thank You, Jesus, for showing us how to truly keep the Sabbath, how to humbly worship our Father God. Forgive us when we refuse to stop long enough to fully rest, when we fail to give our God the respect and honor due Him. Forgive us when we put other things and events ahead of You and God. Please help us turn from our disobedience. Help us remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus our Lord, our Master, our Savior. Amen.
Presbyterian pastor and theologian J. Vernon McGee tells the story of a man who wanted to argue about the Sabbath. The man said to McGee, "I'll give you $100 if you will show me where the Sabbath day has been changed." McGee answered, "I don't think it has been changed. Saturday is Saturday, it is the seventh day of the week, and it is the Sabbath day. I realize our calendar has been adjusted, and can be off a few days, but we won't even consider that point. The seventh day is still Saturday, and it is still the Sabbath day." The man got a gleam in his eye and said, "Then why don't you keep the Sabbath day if it hasn't been changed?" McGee answered, "the day hasn't changed, but I have been changed. I've been given a new nature now, I am joined to Christ; I am a part of the new creation. We celebrate the first day because that is the day He rose from the grave."
We celebrate Sunday, the first day of the week, as our Sabbath because that is when Jesus rose from the grave, paving the way for us to also rise from the grave when He returns. So I have to ask… Do we celebrate Sunday as the Sabbath? How do we celebrate our Sabbath, our day of rest?
Not everyone is a Christian, of course, and some folks have no choice but to work on Sundays. But what about the rest of us? How do we celebrate Sundays? Christian author and speaker Karen Burton Mains asks a few questions of her own, then makes a rather pointed answer. Mrs. Mains wrote…
“Do you rush, push, shout and become generally unpleasant on Sunday mornings? Do you complain about church? Are you irregular in your attendance? Are you over-conscientious about matters that are not really important? Do you always criticize the pastor, the choir, the length of services and the usher crew? Then don't be surprised if your children grow up to look at Sundays as the worst day of the week.”
There are a lot of reasons for folks to miss church on any given Sunday. Some have to work, sometimes it’s the only day a particular event is occurring, or there are times when we’re away from home and can’t attend. But family, people are staying away from church in droves these days. It’s a problem all over the Christian world. It has to be more than those few things I just mentioned. I can’t help but wonder if, as Mrs. Mains questions, we aren’t part of the problem ourselves.
How do we treat Sundays? As a day of worship and rest, or as just another day, but one that we happen to attend church on? Today is the 2nd Sunday in Lent, but what does Sunday really mean to us?
Now God didn’t mean for the Sabbath to be just one day of the week. There are many instances in our Bible when the seventh time period is to be set aside for rest, such as allowing fields to lie sallow, to rest, every seventh year. Through Moses, God established a time of solemn rest and atonement, once every seven months. In Leviticus chapter 16, verses 30 and 31, God has Moses tell us…
30 “For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. 31 It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves. It is a statute forever.”
--Leviticus 16:30-31 (NKJV)
Let’s not think all this about the Sabbath is strictly Old Testament, old times, long forgotten. Jesus often spoke of the Sabbath. I’d like to look at just one such instance. Please listen and follow along as I read from the Gospel account of the Apostle Mark, chapter 2 verse 23 through chapter 3 verse 5…
2:23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
3:1 And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might bring charges against Him. 3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” 4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
--Mark 2:23-3:5 (NKJV)
And Jesus said that man was not created to serve the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath was made to serve man! God gave us the Sabbath because we need it! We need to rest, we need to humble ourselves before our Lord, we need to worship our Father God!
Now I’m not going to get into whether God really needed to rest after working six days. I don’t care if it were really six 24-hour days, or six billion years. Personally, I think God can do anything He wants to do in any time He wants to do it, faster than a hummingbird can flap its wings, and with no need of rest.
But we’re not God and we need our rest. More importantly, we need to remember just who we are, what we are. We are God’s. He made us, He owns us, we belong to Him. We owe Him for everything, including our very existence. So let us humble ourselves and worship Him!
Sure, there are legitimate reasons for us to miss church every now and then. But we can still rest, humble ourselves, and worship God even if we are not in a house of worship. Let us remember the Sabbath that God gave us, and keep it holy. In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You care so much about us and the damage that our sins do us, that You set aside one day each week for us to rest. You set aside one day for us to remember who You are, who we are, and how much we owe You. Thank You, Father, for giving us a Sabbath. Please help us to keep it holy. Help us to truly use this day for rest and for worshiping You. Please forgive us when we let the busyness of life keep us from our time of worship and our time of fellowship with our brother and sister believers.
Please hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, speaking from our hearts, promising to turn from our sin, seeking Your forgiveness for our disobedience…
Lord Jesus, as God, You are the Lord of the Sabbath. You are the Lord of all, including us. You saw how man was respecting the Law more than the giver of the Law, so You reminded us that the Law and the Sabbath were created by God for our benefit, and not the other way around. Thank You, Jesus, for showing us how to truly keep the Sabbath, how to humbly worship our Father God. Forgive us when we refuse to stop long enough to fully rest, when we fail to give our God the respect and honor due Him. Forgive us when we put other things and events ahead of You and God. Please help us turn from our disobedience. Help us remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus our Lord, our Master, our Savior. Amen.
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